Mustaqbal Says FPM Waging Campaign to 'Cover Up Corruption at Ministries'

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed that “justice will be served” in the case of the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, accusing the Free Patriotic Movement of waging a campaign aimed at “covering up the corruption at ministries run by FPM's ministers.”

“The criminals who managed to murder ex-PM Rafik Hariri have failed to undermine his project and his presence which is increasing and expanding day after day, as the martyr premier is among us, more than ever before, through his vision and political, developmental, economic and educational approach,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

The lawmakers vowed to remain committed to “the principles the martyr premier and his companions believed in and died for,” reassuring the Lebanese that “the criminals will be punished and justice will be served no matter how long it takes.”

The Mustaqbal-led March 14 opposition alliance plans to commemorate the 8th anniversary of Hariri's assassination at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL) on Feb. 14 in a massive rally.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the murder has indicted four Hizbullah operatives in the case and the trial is scheduled to begin in March.

Separately, the Mustaqbal bloc said it discussed “the vehement campaign launched by the FPM against al-Mustaqbal Movement under fake and fabricated slogans, the latest of which was the so-called Impossible Acquittance book in which the FPM claims that public money was spent in Lebanon (by the governments of Rafik Hariri, Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri) without clear auditing.”

The bloc underlined that “it will be impossible to acquit (FPM leader) General Michel Aoun, who has appointed himself as a judge, due to the death he caused, the blood he shed and the country he destroyed … when he ordered his army to bombard the Lebanese residential districts.”

“As long as the upright general wants to conduct an auditing and hold people accountable, why doesn't he approve either the draft law proposed by Saniora's government or the suggestion on forming a parliamentary commission of inquiry … to audit all the accounts of the Lebanese state since 1989?” the bloc asked rhetorically, accusing Aoun of resorting to “defamation, lies and incitement.”

Al-Mustaqbal's lawmakers noted that “the campaign waged by General Aoun and his team is aimed at covering up the rampant, unprecedented corruption in the history of the Lebanese administrations, which is being perpetrated at the ministries run by FPM's ministers, especially the energy and telecom ministries.”