Berri Sues al-Jadeed over Private Power Providers Report

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has filed a lawsuit against al-Jadeed television over a report accusing officials from his AMAL Movement of “conspiring with power generator providers.”

The libel lawsuit targets “the head of the Tahseen Khayat Media Group, Karma Khayat and the station's news director Mariam al-Bassam,” the National News Agency said.

NNA added that the suit is related to “the news bulletin intro that was aired on August 5 which accused the ministers of the AMAL Movement who hail from the South and Speaker Berri's aide Ahmed al-Baalbaki or conspiring with power generator providers.”

“The lawsuit has been referred to public attorney Judge Ghassan al-Khoury, who has summoned them all to a session that will be held on Monday, August 13,” the agency added.

AMAL has recently organized a protest to reject the presence of a government-rented Turkish power ship in the al-Zahrani area, citing environmental and economic concerns.

The movement has however been accused of seeking to deprive residents of much-needed additional power supply to the benefit of private power providers -- many of whom are AMAL members or supporters.