Judge Tarek Bitar's charges in the past hours included Major General Tony Saliba, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, Head of the Supreme Council of Customs, Brigadier General Assaad Tufaili, Member of the Supreme Council of Customs, Gracia Al Azzi, and Judges Ghassan Oweidat, Ghassan Khoury, Carla Shawah, and Jad Maalouf, whom Bitar had previously requested from the Cassation Public Prosecution to prosecute them, and the most prominent was the inclusion of the chief prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, into the prosecution.
Notifying the judges is usually done through the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Suhail Abboud, following the rules, which has yet to happen, although sessions have been scheduled for them.
Abboud had visited Caretaker Minister of Justice Henry Khoury, in his office, where judge Bitar's decision was discussed, and the discussions witnessed a disagreement over other legal points. Then, Abboud returned to his office where he met Judge Oweidat. But nothing came out of the meeting.
Before Abboud's visit, Oweidat had stopped the implementation of Bitar's decisions to release five detainees and notify the rest of the defendants for hearings, except for Ghazi Zaiter, Nouhad Al-Machnouk, and Hassan Diab, whom he notified based on a precise mechanism.
Oweidat wrote to Bitar a letter signed in his name, in which he affirmed that the investigator is not competent to take any decision, and for more confirmation, he addressed it to the judicial investigator, whose hands are off the case.
Oweidat's patience has run out, as he cited to Bitar two verses from the Qur'an and the Bible, referring that Bitar “will face the same treatment as you treat others.”
Oweidat left his office and said, "if stepping down is not legally available, then I did not step down and signed the letter. We were informed of Judge Bitar's decision from the media, and we will deal with him as if he does not exist as long as we do not exist for him."
As for Oweidat's justification for not implementing is that the judicial investigator sent the notifications contrary to the rules.
Judicially, if the judicial investigator's decision faces widespread criticism from some of his colleagues, as the sources ask, isn't Bitar accepting his appointment instead of Judge Sawan, who was rejected by the Court of Cassation, implicitly admitting that the judicial investigator can be rejected?
Considering this situation, some of the judges consider Bitar's decision requires the competent judicial authority to take appropriate judicial action from it, so will the judicial investigator be prosecuted?
Will the Judicial Council meet to take a position on Judge Tarek Bitar's decision, or will Bitar's decision lead to more division within it?
Will Judge Ghassan Oweidat abide by his removal from the port's file, or will the response to Bitar be by participating in the sessions of the Supreme Judicial Council related to the port file?