Youssef Diab wrote about Asharq Al-Awsat:
The withdrawal of judges in Lebanon, which lasted more than five months, ends today, Thursday, to return work to the public prosecution, investigative departments and criminal and civil courts, on the basis of a statement or circular issued by the Supreme Judicial Council and communicated to all magistrates, in line with what was agreed during the general meeting which was held last week.
And with the return to normality of judicial work, the judges’ crisis ends with the fulfillment of a small part of their requests, and should put an end to the plight of the Lebanese whose cases have been suspended and prevented from filing them during the months of total suspension, and a source of the Supreme Judicial Council affirmed that “the wheel of justice started in principle at the beginning of the new year, and will turn with the end of the holidays”. He stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that “President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Justice Suhail Abboud, and the members of the Council were decisive during the General Assembly on the need to resume judicial work and not to leave matters subject to interruption. ” The source, who declined to be named, said: “The position of the Judicial Council was clear, as it supported all the material, moral and logistical needs of the judiciary, and everything related to the independence of the judiciary and the his release from interference, and informed them that the lawful cry of the judges has reached the concerned, and has become obligatory on every judge”. To fulfill its responsibilities as guarantor of justice and people’s rights.
The magistrates’ strike mitigates its negative effects on the reality of justice, making it difficult to resolve the judiciary suffocation crisis and the accumulation of lawsuits, but the source confirms that “the magistrates will return to work with a dynamic that compensates for the lack of long months, and limits the accumulation of files awaiting definition, both for presumptive decisions and for sentences.” Specifying that «the judge is not required to stay in his office five days a week, due to the great distances that separate his residence and his work centre, but must attend a minimum of two days and work many hours to reduce the existing accumulations and compensate for the long absence”, underlining that the judicial work “will see regularity and a return to the previous state, especially in the Public Prosecutor’s Offices, which will do their job, allowing any citizen to contact the Public Prosecutor’s Office located in its geographical area to file suit, unlike the disruption that has prevailed in recent months.”
And the judges of Lebanon announced five months ago, in an unprecedented decision, a withdrawal and a complete cessation of work without exception, in protest against their low wages, which have lost 95 percent of their value, as well as the lack of medical care and hospital services and school and university scholarships Hundreds of people have to file complaints because of the strike and the failure to accept any reviews, and the strike has caused the accumulation of thousands of unsolved cases, and the damages of this i’tikaaf have hit prisons and detention centers crowded with prisoners in the light of the delay in deciding their releases, as well as damages to lawyers, but the judicial source reassured and specified that “things will gradually become regularized, starting next week, so that the courts will start issuing sentences behind their deadlines, and the investigating judges will start to r he release decisions, and this will contribute to the release of hundreds of detainees”.
The settlement envisaged that the magistrates accepted the partial improvement of their salaries, while retaining, albeit temporarily, social assistance. A source accompanying the movement states that “the solution was not exhaustive, and what the magistrates obtained does not satisfy all their requests, but satisfies some priorities.
He explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that “what the judges have achieved is the increase that has been imposed on the public budget, that is, tripling salaries, as is the case for all public sector employees”. He specified that “the mutual fund of judges continues to pay assistance in (fresh dollars), ranging from 500 to 1,200 dollars to a judge, each according to his rank”. treatment will be deducted from the total amount due to all judges.
It seems that the optimistic climate has not yet reached the ears of the lawyers, who consider themselves the hardest hit, and the head of the Beirut Bar Association, Nader Kasbar, has welcomed any decision issued by the Supreme Judicial Council to break the ‘i’tikaf, and said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat: “We will erect a statue for the Judicial Council and the judges to inform us of the end of the strike, but if it continues, we will enter what is prohibited.” He explained: “The orders of lawyers from Beirut and Tripoli will take a decisive position within a week or ten days if the withdrawal continues, and we will announce the (Day of Rage), which will have a great impact.” Gaspar continued: “We, as the two Bar Associations, have had a role in facilitating the judges’ requests, but unfortunately this strike has created problems between the lawyers and their clients, so much so that many lawyers have fired their employees and are remained in their homes, and this is unacceptable”.
