Jumblat sues Judge Aoun over 'WikiLeaks' tweet

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun over a tweet alleging that Swiss banks had frozen accounts belonging to Jumblat and other Lebanese political figures.

State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat referred the lawsuit to the general commission of the Court of Cassation based on the complaint that had been filed by Speaker Nabih Berri and others over the same tweet.

Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud meanwhile received the lawsuit to take the necessary legal measures.

Aoun had published a list of names of Lebanese officials who allegedly have frozen accounts in Switzerland, citing “WikiLeaks” as a source.

She captioned the list with a call for the mentioned politicians to lift secrecy off their accounts, "for the sake of transparency."

"I do not know how true this information is, but why don't they disclose their accounts in the Swiss banks," Aoun said.

The name of Jumblat ranks ninth on the list with an alleged $4.6 billion.

Experts have argued that the sums of money that the alleged accounts contain are totally unrealistic seeing as major depositors tend to put their money in several accounts. Others have stressed that the alleged information has not been published by WikiLeaks.