​The President met a delegation of families of those arrested in the Beirut port explosion.

President Aoun: “It is time for the full truth to be known about the circumstances of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion and to stop political investment and invoking immunities, privileges and legal loopholes”.

The President affirmed that he is keen on the independence of the judiciary as much as he is keen on the principles that support the work of this authority, including that the presumption of innocence prevails until conviction.

President Aoun stressed the necessity of issuing a decision by the judicial investigative judge, according to which the Judicial Council seizes its jurisdiction according to the accusation, so that innocent people are acquitted, and those responsible at all levels are condemned.

The President of Caritas invited President Aoun to participate in the festive mass on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the association and stressed that Caritas serves more than 900,000 people annually.

President Aoun emphasized the need to neutralize humanitarian needs and aid from political goals in order to preserve people’s dignity and their right to a decent life.

President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, affirmed that he is keen on the independence of the judiciary in prosecution, investigation and judgment in the case of crimes referred to the competent judiciary, as much as he is keen on the principles that support the work of the judicial authority, including that every complainant must find his judge, and that the presumption of innocence prevails until conviction.

President Aoun’s positions came while meeting a delegation from the town of Rechmaya in the Aley district, in the presence of MP, Cesar Abi Khalil.

President Aoun reviewed the issue of the continued detention of the Director General of Customs Badri Daher, despite the passage of more than one year and seven months.

President Aoun also received a delegation of families of those arrested in the Beirut port explosion. 

The members of the two delegations told President Aoun that they are waiting anxiously, as are the families of the innocent victims of the dead and wounded, and the owners of private property that has sustained severe damage in Beirut, the capital, for fair and just judicial decisions.

For his side, the President stressed the necessity of issuing a decision by the judicial investigative judge, after liberating him from the restrictions imposed on him, according to which the Judicial Council seizes its jurisdiction according to the accusation.

President Aoun added: "It is time for the full truth to be known about the circumstances of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion and responsibilities, and to stop political investment and invoking immunities, privileges and legal loopholes that paralyze the ability of the competent judiciary to prosecute, accuse and convict”.

“Injustice is cruel and is not legally acceptable when justice is partial, restricted, partial or selective, and all this is due to political oppression” President Aoun said.

The President also informed the delegation that he "will not tire until the right is achieved at all levels in this case, bearing in mind that the jurisprudence was found to fill the legal loopholes or to circumvent the artificial and malicious restrictions in the lawsuits”.

Caritas Lebanon Association:

President Aoun received the President of Caritas Lebanon, Father Michel Abboud, and members of the association's board of directors.

The delegation came to invite the President to participate in the festive mass on the occasion of the golden jubilee of Caritas.

At the beginning of the meeting, Father Abboud gave the following speech:

 “We have come to your Excellency on behalf of the Council of the Caritas Lebanon Association, which works for all of Lebanon and in all of Lebanon, to invite you to celebrate the golden jubilee of the founding of Caritas.

Caritas was launched in the year 1972 from Sidon, and after that it was present in all the stages and crises faced by Lebanon.

After the approval of His Beatitude Patriarch Al-Rahi to open the Jubilee year with a festive mass to be held on June 26 in the Basilica of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, we are honored to invite you to participate in this mass on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Caritas Lebanon Association.

I take this opportunity, to share with you what Caritas is doing today. Caritas annually serves about 900,000 people in the social, medical, development and educational sectors. It also serves Syrian refugees in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, foreign workers in Lebanon, and detainees who do not have any assistance.

With your help, we hope that Caritas will be present on the map of the international community, because we live in Lebanon today with the so-called "new poverty" that suffers from those with low incomes and those who turn to Caritas for help. 

We also asked His Holiness, Pope Francis, during our meeting with him a few months ago, to raise the voice of Caritas to the international community to provide support.  This is what we started working on in coordination with Patriarch Al-Rahi and the papal ambassador”.

For his part, President Aoun congratulated the attendees on the golden jubilee that Caritas Lebanon celebrates, and the great humanitarian work it has been doing for 50 years to date.

The President also considered that the support provided by institutions such as Caritas, and other local and international organizations, has become an essential support in the current stage, for a large number of families who suffer greatly as a result of the deteriorating economic and financial conditions, “even if it does not absolve the state from its duties to work with all its institutions, to rise from the deterioration that the situation has reached, within a clear economic and financial vision that establishes a way out of the current crisis”.

Moreover, President Aoun stressed the need to neutralize humanitarian needs and the aid provided from political goals, in order to preserve people's dignity and their right to a decent life.

Congratulations on Fitr feast from the King of Jordan:

In addition, President Aoun received a congratulatory message on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr from Jordanian King Abdullah II.

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