Miqati Slams 'Populist' Measures against Banks, Asks Oueidat to Intervene

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a meeting Friday at the Grand Serail with Justice Minister Henri Khoury, amid unprecedented measures by some judges against a number of commercial banks.

“Keenness on the judiciary’s independence and non-interference in judicial affairs must be equal to the keenness on the stability of the situations in the country on all levels, especially financial stability,” Miqati said during the meeting.

“The judiciary has the right to investigate any financial or banking file, especially that the recovery of bank depositors’ rights is the priority and main principle in all the negotiations that we’re conducting with the IMF and all relevant authorities, but the use of populist and police-state methods in the course of investigations harms the judiciary first as well as the entire banking sector,” the premier added.

Warning that some judges are “stirring tensions that might have dire consequences,” Miqati charged that “there are attempts to exploit these tensions in the electoral campaigns.”

He accordingly called on judicial authorities to “rectify” the course, as he described the banking sector as “one of the economic pillars in Lebanon that will play a key role in the recovery process.”

Miqati also agreed with Khoury to ask State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat to “take the appropriate measures in this file.”