Beirut: Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Junblatt’s latest tweet criticising Lebanon’s judiciary has sucked him into a sparring match with rival Druze leader Wiam Wahhab.
On Friday, Junblatt called for an independent judiciary while slamming Lebanon’s executive branch in a post on Twitter.
He drew parallels to current events in the US, where the judiciary branch was able to “check” the executive branch’s powers by reversing a controversial ban issued by President Donald Trump banning refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Reacting to Junblatt’s tweet, Wahhab, a Druze chieftain who is part of the pro-Syrian March 8 coalition, said: “Lebanon can witness such a judicial system only when people like you stop pressuring it into the continued detention of Bahij Abu Hamzah.”
Abu Hamzah has been in jail for two years facing embezzlement charges filed by Junblatt, who was his former business partner.
He was ordered to pay $3.45 million in damages but was not released when his sentence ended a few months ago.
Critics say his long-term detention lacks transparency and accuse Junblatt of pressuring judges to keep him in prison purely based on egotistical reasons.
Wahhab accused Junblatt of “hypocrisy” saying if Lebanon’s judiciary functioned as well as the judiciary in the US, “you would be out of job”.
