Hezbollah MP Slams Lack of Action against Corrupted Figures

“We have presented to the judiciary all the files we have concerning corruption and the waste of public funds; but we still haven’t seen any corrupt behind bars,” Fadallah said in a press conference at the Parliament.

“We have encountered significant obstacles while following up on the corruption issue,” he added, noting that hundreds of papers have been submitted to the financial prosecutor.

MP Fadlallah was tasked by Hezbollah with following on the file of corruption and government spending following the parliamentary elections in May 2018.

In March 2019, he submitted documents to Lebanon’s financial prosecutor to support accusations he made regarding missing public funds.

MP Fadlallah called for a probe, saying that billions of Lebanese pounds, rather than dollars, had disappeared.

There were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail … including ex-prime ministers who may be held accountable,” Fadlallah said at time.

Many suspected the allegations to be a reference to former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who has been previously accused of spending $11 billion in extra-budgetary spending during his premiership between 2005 and 2009.

However, the issue was paused at time because of the sectarian cover Siniora had sought, with Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdel Latif Darian saying that the former PM “is a red line and he is a man of state par excellence.”