A group of lawyers, including Maha Zalqat, Gilbert Abi Aboud, Deniz Hajj, Gabi Dakash, Tony Chartouni, Mazen Abu Al-Hassan, Shukri Al-Bustani, Ghassan Hamdan, and Ahmad Al-Amri, with the initiative of lawyers Adib Zakhour, Eli Majdalani, and Naif Diab, visited the House of Representatives today, Thursday. They met with Deputy Melhem Khalaf to express solidarity with him and his fellow deputies Najat Saliba, Paula Yacoubian, and Firas Hamdan.
A statement from the group noted that the professors accompanied deputies Khalaf, Saliba, and Yacoubian to the Ministry of Finance, where Khalaf, on behalf of himself and a group of fellow deputies, submitted a request to Minister of Finance Youssef Khalil for a copy of the forensic audit report prepared by Alvarez, which is recorded in the ministry's records. They then met with the Minister of Finance and demanded that he provide them, as deputies, with a copy of the report.
Khalaf explained the reasons for the request, citing the Law on the Right to Access Information, particularly because the report belongs to the Lebanese people. He also mentioned a precedent with the former Minister of Finance, emphasizing that any contradictory clause preventing access to a copy of the report is null and void due to its illegality and will not be enforced.
