Rifi Insists on Resignation: Neither Aoun nor Franjieh Will Be Elected President
Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stressed Wednesday that he will not reverse his decision on resigning from Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government.
“I insist on my resignation and I will not reverse my decision because I no longer belong to the current government,” said Rifi in an interview with MTV.
The minister had submitted his resignation in protest at the government's procrastination in referring the case of ex-minister Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council and at Hizbullah's verbal attacks against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
Rifi accused Hizbullah of blocking his efforts to transfer the case against Samaha to the Judicial Council – Lebanon's highest court – after the Military Court issued a controversial ruling to release him on bail during a retrial. The ex-minister was later sentenced to 13 years in prison with hard labor.
Samaha was arrested in August 2012 and charged with attempting to carry out terrorist acts over accusations that he and Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk transported explosives and planned attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon.
Rifi resumed his duties as justice minister in mid-March by signing the ministry's mail and following up on its files, although without being present at the ministry building and despite the fact that Minister of the Displaced Alice Shabtini had assumed duties as acting justice minister.
According to legal experts, the acceptance of Rifi's resignation requires a decree signed by the president of the republic in addition to the PM's approval, the thing that is not possible amid the current presidential vacuum.
Separately, Rifi declared Wednesday that neither Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun nor Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh will become president, citing “information” he has obtained.
The minister also floated the idea that the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon could summon Franjieh, “at least as a witness.”
“Franjieh bears at least moral responsibility seeing as ex-PM Rafik Hariri was assassinated during his tenure as interior minister” in 2005, Rifi told MTV.
Lebanon has been without a president since the term of Michel Suleiman ended in May 2014 and the FPM, Hizbullah and some of their allies have been boycotting the electoral sessions.
Ex-PM Saad Hariri, the leader of the al-Mustaqbal movement that nominated Rifi for the justice ministry, launched late in 2015 a proposal to nominate Franjieh for the presidency but his suggestion was rejected by the country's main Christian parties as well as Hizbullah.
Hizbullah and the FPM, as well as March 14's Lebanese Forces, have argued that Aoun is more eligible than Franjieh to become president given the size of his parliamentary bloc and his bigger influence in the Christian community.
Y.R.
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