The Individual Penal Judge of Beirut Diyaa Mcheimech issued a verdict on Friday, sentencing Bahij Abou hamza to two years in prison and ordering him to pay an amount of USD 3.450 million to Safa Sports Club owned by Walid Jumblatt.
In December 2013, MP Walid Jumblatt’s lawyers, Walid Sfeir and Hussam Rasbey, filed two lawsuits against Bahij Abou Hamza before Judge Oueidat. One of the complaints focuses on a land dispute.
Abou Hamza is a leading businessman who at one point held close relations with Jumblatt. He once ran the Progressive Socialist Party's real estate deeds and managed Jumblatt's private properties. Abou Hamza was also the former head of the Association of Oil Importing Companies.
But the relations between the two men have cooled significantly in recent months, when MP Jumblatt relieved Abou Hamza of his duties after almost 30 years of service.
In one of the lawsuits filed by Jumblatt, he accuses Abou Hamza and Hussein Bdeir, a Shiite businessman, of selling him a piece of land that did not actually exist, sources reported.
The PSP leader said he was the victim of “organized fraud,” and accused Abou Hamza and Bdeir of taking advantage of the fact that he was busy with politics and social obligations in order to dupe him.
Later the same month, Abou Hamza’s lawyers presented petitions asking Jumblatt to drop the lawsuits.