Fatfat: Berri is Hizbullah Tool in Constitutional Council Crisis
Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Ahmed Fatfat has accused Speaker Nabih Berri of being a Hizbullah tool after two Shiite judges boycotted the meetings of the Constitutional Council.
In an interview with An Nahar daily published Sunday, Fatfat said: “What happened at the Constitutional Council showed that Nabih Berri is an execution tool to what Hizbullah says.”
Three judges, two Shiites and a Druze, boycotted earlier this week the meetings that were aimed at discussing a report drafted by the council's president, Judge Issam Suleiman, on the petitions filed by President Michel Suleiman and the Change and Reform bloc to challenge the 17-month extension of parliament’s term.
Fatfat said that both Berri, a Shiite, and Druze leader Walid Jumblat are capable of influencing the judges.
The lawmaker denied that al-Mustaqbal had been playing any role in the paralysis of the council's work.
“Those paralyzing the Constitutional Council are those who are not attending the meetings,” Fatfat said. “It's obvious that this absence is the result of a political decision.”
The council has set another meeting for next Tuesday but it is not likely to convene over lack of quorum.
The approval or the rejection of the challenges requires the go-ahead of seven out of the council's half-Christian half-Muslim members and a quorum of eight members is needed to vote on challenges.
The lack of quorum would make the 17-month extension law valid after the end of parliament's mandate on June 20.
Asked what measures al-Mustaqbal would take if the council remained crippled, Fatfat said: “We are heading towards a political confrontation that could reach civil disobedience.”
“We will ask the people not to pay their bills and taxes and to confront the state because everything is crippled in it under the force of arms,” he told An Nahar.
The March 14 alliance is studying the measures to confront Hizbullah's weapons, he said.
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