Now Lebanon - Judiciary cannot ignore Sayyed’s request, source says - September 19, 2010

The judiciary cannot ignore former General Security chief Jamil as-Sayyed’s request that Attorney General Said Mirza be disqualified from his post, Al-Manar television quoted an anonymous legal source as saying on Sunday.

Sayyed has argued that Mirza is not legally qualified to take judicial action against him because Mirza is one of several Lebanese and Syrian public figures named as defendants in a lawsuit Sayyed filed in Damascus in December 2009.

Mirza summoned Sayyed for questioning at Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar’s request after Sayyed said on September 12 that “[Prime Minister Saad Hariri] should take a lie detector test to prove he did not support or fund false witnesses in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).” The former General Security chief also threatened to take his right “with his own hands” if Hariri did not give it to him.

“Lebanese law clearly allows a request for the disqualification of a judge who is an adversary in a particular case,” the source added.

The source also said that “among the immediate ramifications of this principle is that Mirza should stop any direct involvement in [Sayyed’s] case in order to wait for the decision on Sayyed’s request.”

In a legal brief issued earlier on Sunday, former Tripoli Lawyers Syndicate head Rashid Darbas argued that Mirza took judicial procedures against Sayyed in his official capacity on behalf of the public interest.

-NOW Lebanon