Berri Stays Mum on Verdict against Samaha
Speaker Nabih Berri refused to comment on the Military Tribunal's sentence against former Minister Michel Samaha, stressing that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah didn't inform him yet about his presidential initiative.
“I don't comment on the verdicts issued by the judiciary... I abide by this principle since I was a justice minister... to preserve the work of the judiciary and respect it,” Berri said in remarks published in local newspapers on Monday.
The tribunal's verdict against Samaha drew the ire of the March 14 alliance, in particular the Mustaqbal Movement that described the sentence as a “joke.”
Samaha was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail over terrorism charges, including the time he served since August 2012. The judicial year amounts to nine months.
The speaker stressed that Nasrallah hasn't informed him yet about the presidential initiative that he is mulling.
“I don't know it's context,” Berri said.
Nasrallah said on Saturday in a televised speech that his ally Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun is trying to propose solutions for the crisis, calling on political parties to discuss them and study them.
“No one has an interest in having a vacuum,” he said.
Lebanon has been without a president since May last year when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor.
Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the election.
Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance and Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting the electoral sessions over the sharp differences.
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