Danny Haddad – Mtv
Cassation Prosecutor Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj may be the first to arrive at the Palace of Justice in Beirut in the morning. But he is definitely the last one to leave in the evening. But the work day continues, mostly, at home at night, where he reads the files that prevent his receptions in the office from reading them.
It seems clear that the youngest judge to reach the position of Public Prosecutor in the history of the Lebanese Republic is keen to present an image completely different from the one promoted by opponents of his arrival, before his appointment. On the day the decision was issued by the Council of Ministers, a friend accompanied him to fulfill a vow at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. The next day, he visited his father’s grave. He prayed for the comfort of those who learned a lot from him and missed him that day.
Before his appointment, Hajj was accused of having a relationship with Hezbollah. However, through the first decision he issued, he sought to prove the opposite, so he defended the idea of the “Angry Birds” video, and pursued those who attacked the Maronite Patriarch.
After the decision, Al-Hajj received a call from Representative Hussein Al-Hajj Hassan, and they agreed on an appointment. Hajj Hassan attended with a party delegation, and expressed his condemnation of the decision, considering it an insult to the owner of a turban, Sheikh Naeem Qasim.
Al-Hajj was clear: This turban works in public affairs, and there is no abuse of it as a spiritual reference, and what happened falls within the framework of freedom to express a political opinion.
The discussion, in the office located on the fourth floor of the Palace of Justice, touched on a series of matters that had never before been discussed with such clarity between a judicial authority and Hezbollah. Al-Hajj said that he would pursue any weapon bearer who belonged to the party, outside the front with the Israeli army. The Shiite weapon bearer will be treated like the Sunni, Druze or Christian weapon bearer, and there will be no cover for anyone.
He also revealed that he would soon open the Al-Qard Al-Hassan file, pointing out to the Hezbollah delegation that he was interested in whether the institution constituted a gateway to money laundering or a means of financially financing the “party.” He addressed Hajj Hassan by saying: If the purpose of the good loan was not financing or money laundering, then you should facilitate the investigation into it because that will grant you an acquittal.
MTV learned that Judge Al-Hajj will soon receive MP Hassan Fadlallah, who had previously attacked him, after his last incident on MP Bilal Abdullah’s phone.
Files pile up on the desk of the judge, who complains of lack of sleep. He even fell asleep a little, due to extreme fatigue, at a “reconciliation” dinner he had with Minister of Justice Adel Nassar. The most prominent of these files is the port explosion, which Al-Hajj insists on accomplishing, “but with the timing of the judiciary, not the street or the pressure of the August 4 anniversary.”
Yesterday, he added a new file related to the Iraqi impersonating a security officer. It was sent to him from the Intelligence Directorate, and he will learn its details in the next few days.
The Cassation Prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj, does not raise his ambitions very high. He is a realist who knows what the judiciary is and what it owes. You see him as soft in his approach and firm in his stance. He is not a fan of shooting, even if the President of the Republic gave him a gun when he visited him. But, at the same time, he stresses that he is not willing to give up his powers, even if the situation requires a confrontation within the judiciary itself.
