Oueidat refers Judge Aoun to cassation court as she requests his recusal

State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat on Monday referred Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun to the general commission of the Court of Cassation after she failed to appear before him over a libel complaint filed by Speaker Nabih Berri and his wife Randa.

According to state-run National News Agency, Oueidat charged Aoun with “stirring sectarian sentiments, inciting conflict among the elements of the nation, libel, slander and abuse of power,” referring a copy of the lawsuit to the judicial inspection commission.

Aoun for her part submitted a request for recusing Oueidat to the general commission of the Court of Cassation, arguing that there is rivalry between her and the state prosecutor.

Speaking to al-Jadeed TV, Berri’s lawyer Ali Rahal said the public prosecution charged Aoun with all the offenses that were alleged by the Speaker and his wife.

And speaking to MTV, Rahal said “the lawsuit is legal and there is insistence on carrying out with it until the end, seeing that there are dignities.”

“We will not back down,” he added.

Berri had filed the lawsuit after Aoun published a list of names of Lebanese officials who allegedly have frozen accounts in Switzerland, citing WikiLeaks as a source.

She captioned the list with a call for the mentioned politicians to lift secrecy off their accounts, "for the sake of transparency."

"I do not know how true this information is, but why don't they disclose their accounts in the Swiss banks," Aoun said.

The name of Berri comes fourth in the list with $6.4 billion, in addition to an account for his wife Randa Berri worth $5.7 billion and another for his son Abdallah Berri worth $2 billion.