“Lebanon Debate”
In light of the understanding that preceded the parliamentary session regarding the general amnesty law, attention is turning to the formula in which the law will be issued and the extent of its ability to address the issue of detainees who spent long years behind bars, while in parallel a debate arose over the presence of Defense Minister Michel Mansi and the possibility of him delivering a speech during the session.
In this context, MP Waddah Sadiq, in an interview with “Lebanon Debate” from the House of Representatives, confirmed that the amnesty law is supposed to be approved if the understanding reached is adhered to, saying: “If they adhere to the agreement that occurred yesterday, the law must certainly pass.”
Regarding the controversy surrounding limiting benefit to concluded rulings and not non-concluded ones, Sadiq expressed his reservations about this approach, stressing that “a law should not be tailored to fit a person, just as it is not permissible to fight a law for the sake of a person,” and considering that the primary goal should be to lift injustice against detainees who have spent long years in prisons.
He said: “We are working on a law to remove injustice. The law was basically unjust, because when we say that we want to reduce the period of release from 14 to 12 years, who do we release after a ruling is issued against them? There are people who spent 12 years in prison and were not sentenced.”
He looked at the conditions of the detainees who were not sentenced despite the passage of years since their arrest, asking: “There are those who spent 10 years and no sentence was issued against them. How could this happen?”
In this context, Sadiq criticized the performance of the military court in previous stages, considering that it unjustly inflicted a number of detainees. He said: “Especially during the days of Brigadier General Shehadeh, death sentences and life sentences were issued within one year in very high numbers.”
He stressed the need to address this issue and not keep it open, saying: “We cannot leave people oppressed. These people have families waiting for them while they are in prison.”
Despite his comments on the proposed formula, Sadiq considered that it represented “the best possible in light of the existing composition in the House of Representatives,” expressing his hope that the representatives would succeed in establishing consensus and approving the law.
He added: “I hope that we will enter now and agree on the issue, end it, and turn the page, so that we can begin to build the country without continuing to carry with us the mistakes of the past.”
In another context, Sadiq addressed the controversy over the possibility of Defense Minister Michel Mansi delivering a speech during the parliamentary session, ruling out that happening, and said: “According to my information, he will not deliver a speech, because the Prime Minister is the one who attends the session and represents the government.”
He added: “We do not have ministers who enter the Council and deliver speeches individually. This would be a precedent, so I do not think he will deliver the speech.”
On the other hand, Sadiq was keen to separate his position on the constitutional issue from his personal assessment of the Minister of Defense, saying: “The Minister of Defense is a legal and ethical person, and he is a very good person and a dear friend of mine, but he made a mistake without paying attention.”
He explained that the mistake, from his point of view, was that “the Minister of Defense requested permission to speak before the session from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Elias Bou Saab,” considering that Bou Saab, in turn, “committed a mistake without paying attention when he was allowed to speak, because that constitutes a complete violation of the Prime Minister’s powers.”
Sadiq concluded by stressing the need to respect constitutional powers and not return to previous practices, saying: “In past years, there was a habit of exceeding the powers of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. With the presence of President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, this story has ended.”
