Daily Star - Sit-in calls for distancing judiciary from tensions, rows - September 21, 2010

BEIRUT: Judicial and administrative staff at the Justice Palace in Beirut held a sit-in Monday morning at the Palace to urge political and religious officials to distance the judiciary from political tensions and personal disputes.

“Because the judiciary is the only guarantee to the parliamentary democratic system governing Lebanon,” the participants said in a memo filed to the Higher Judicial Council.

The sit-in followed former head of the General Security Jamil al-Sayyed’s accusations that State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and Deputy President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Lebanese Judge Ralph Riachi were behind false witnesses in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s murder.

Mirza has summoned Sayyed for questioning over threatening state security and Premier Saad Hariri, but the former major general has refused to comply with the summons, saying the judge was not eligible to handle the case because of “a personal dispute” with him.

Participants on Monday protested against campaigns that “harmed the reputation of the judicial authorities” and demanded that the “judiciary be non-politicized and unaffiliated to any party.”

“The judiciary does not move randomly nor under any political or moral pressure but in accordance with applicable laws that necessitate that the judiciary takes the required measures in case of a violation of public order that puts the society in danger,” the statement added.

The participants stressed that the Lebanese democratic state cannot be reformed if the judiciary remains under constant attack, which should be stopped to “avoid the harmful repercussions on the judiciary.” – The Daily Star