Mustaqbal Slams Campaign against Mashnouq: All Linked to Illegal Internet Must Be Held Accountable
The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday the campaign directed against Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, while also demanding that all those involved in the illegal internet file be held accountable for their actions.
“Investigations in this issue should continue to the end and it should not be pushed under the rug,” it demanded after its weekly meeting.
It said that the illegal network was uncovered by the Telecommunications Ministry and Ogero company.
It therefore warned against “allowing those who have certain interests in the file to meddle in the investigations to veer them off course.”
“This requires that judicial, security, and media authorities adopt a transparent and unbiased investigation,” said the bloc.
This issue should be kept away from political, financial, and media intervention “that are aimed at targeting honorable officials and employees and blaming them” for the illegal network, remarked the Mustaqbal bloc.
It gave the example of the campaign against Ogero director Abdul Menhem Youssef.
The bloc demanded that investigations be sped up and that the case be referred to concerned courts “because the court is the only side that is able to settle petty political scores.”
A dispute broke out on Tuesday at parliament's telecommunications committee between Health Minister Wael Abou Faour and Youssef after the minister demanded that the latter be banned from such meetings “because he is a suspect” in the illegal internet file.
Suspects involved in the case and believed to be associated with the state-owned telecommunications company Ogero were arrested on Monday over possible links to the networks.
In March, the parliamentary media committee unveiled what it described as a “mafia” that are taking advantage of internet services by installing internet stations that are not subject to the state control.
Commenting on the campaign against Mashnouq, the Mustaqbal bloc defended the minister “who, since assuming his post, performed his duties out of keenness on all Lebanese.”
“The campaign against him by petty sides does not serve the state or its institutions, which should serve all and which some sides are working on destroying,” it added.
A war of words had erupted on Twitter between Mashnouq and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat over a number of corruption files.
The MP had uncovered a number of corruption issues linked to the squandering of funds of the Internal Security Forces and the involvement of security agencies in the human trafficking ring that was recently discovered in Jounieh.
On Monday, he had warned of an organized campaign by those affiliated to Mashnouq against the judicial police in an attempt to replace its head Naji al-Masri by another figure.
Mashnouq had frequently warned via Twitter against making attacks against the ISF, in an indirect reference to Jumblat.
M.T.
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