Lebanon’s top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat has officially left office today following a 5-year tenure from September 2019 to February 2024. Oueidat will leave his post after having reached retirement age, and will be replaced by the President of the seventh Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Jamal Hajjar. Hajjar was appointed as an Acting Public Prosecutor by the President of the High Judicial Council Souhail Abboud, as it’s not possible to appoint a new prosecutor while the presidency seat is still vacant.
Oueidat played a key role in protecting the ruling class in the past 5 years, and will be remembered most definitely for paralyzing the Beirut port investigation by going after the investigating judge at the Court of Justice, Tarek Bitar. Instead of supporting Bitar’s efforts to unveil the truth, he brought charges against him and released all the detainees in the Beirut explosion case.
Unfortunately, he will retire peacefully now without any sort of accountability for the violations he committed. In fact, he allowed himself to visit the Pope this year (to confess?) prior to his retirement. Let’s wait and see now what Judge Hajjar will do once he takes up his new duties tomorrow.