Report: Abboud suggests expelling Ghada Aoun from judiciary

Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud has questioned Judge Ghada Aoun’s eligibility to be in her post during a meeting for the council, after referring her to judicial inspection “failed to yield a result nor to curb her drive,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Accordingly, Abboud proposed expelling Aoun and Judge Shadi Qardouhi from the judiciary for violating the principle of judicial discretion, the daily added.

Abboud a number of judges said Aoun and Qardouhi “are not fit to be judges,” discussing the possibility of asking the Judicial Inspection Commission to prepare a report over the “violations that they have committed” and sending it to the justice minister to ask him to suspend them over “ineligibility,” al-Akhbar said.

“However, this proposal created a sharp rift in the council and a heated debate, before an agreement was reached to suspend its discussion,” the daily added.

A legal expert meanwhile told al-Akhbar that the Higher Judicial Council “cannot take such a decision.”

“The maximal measure that the council can take is referral to the Judicial Inspection Commission for so that a probe can be conducted,” the expert added.