“Lebanon Debate”
In a new development on the sidelines of the HAWK III tanker file, one of the most prominent customs and judicial files that are still being followed up in Lebanon, a fraud was revealed that targeted the family of one of those arrested in the case, after it paid $225,000 to a judicial broker who deluded her into having influence within the judiciary, also claiming his closeness to Hezbollah leader Wafiq Safa, and his ability to secure the release of her son.
The HAWK III file dates back to a seizure operation carried out by Lebanese Customs based on a report provided by engineer Fawzi Meshlab, after suspicion of a fuel shipment entering Lebanon with documents suspected of being forged to conceal the true origin of the cargo. The case has become one of the most prominent customs investigation files, and is still the subject of judicial prosecutions related to suspicions of forgery and customs violations.
According to the information, the threads of the fraud began when engineer Fawzi Mashlab received data indicating that one of the brokers was exploiting the family of one of the detainees in the file, claiming that he had a close relationship with the leader of Hezbollah, Wafiq Safa, and influence within the judiciary through a “specialized team,” enabling him to influence the course of the investigations and secure the release of the detainee in exchange for 225 thousand US dollars.
The information indicates that Meshlab checked the data he received, and it became clear to him that what happened did not raise any suspicion against the judges supervising the file, but rather revealed a fraud and blackmail operation based on the claim of the existence of fictitious judicial influence. He immediately informed the judge whom the broker falsely claimed to have influence over, and who referred the information directly to the Cassation Public Prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj. The latter gave a signal to open an urgent investigation, and assigned the Information Division to follow up on the case and uncover its circumstances.
According to the information, the Information Division was able, within less than twenty-four hours, to arrest the judicial broker, Bilal Safa.
During the investigations, it became clear that the promises made to the family had no legal basis. The detainee was not released as a result of any mediation or intervention, but rather after about four months of his pretrial detention, following a judicial decision to release him in exchange for a financial bail of 100,000 US dollars, noting that his role in the file was secondary, and that the acts attributed to him did not, in their legal description, exceed the limits of a misdemeanor, which made his continued pretrial detention legally unjustified.
During the investigation, Bilal Safa admitted, according to the information, that he had received $225,000 from the family of one of the detainees. He also admitted that he was claiming to be close to the leader of Hezbollah, Wafiq Safa, and to have judicial influence to convince the family to pay the money, before he admitted that these allegations were completely fabricated, and that he had not communicated with any judge or judicial body, and that his statements or actions did not result in any judicial action or decision, but were limited to carrying out an operation. A fraud that targeted the detainee’s family by exploiting influential names and personalities and suggesting the existence of influence that does not exist.
This case re-highlights the danger of some brokers exploiting the suffering of the families of detainees, by claiming to have relationships or influence within the judiciary or with political and security figures, while the facts of this file showed that the judicial procedures proceeded according to their normal legal course, and that what was revealed was nothing but a fraud that ended with the arrest of the suspect and his referral to investigation with a signal from the Cassation Public Prosecution.
