2023-07-13 01:11:17
Lebanese justice is once again under fire from critics. The severity of the sentence pronounced against journalist Dima Sadek in the case which opposes him to the Christian political leader Gebran Bassil revives the accusations against a justice subject to political interference. Monday, July 10, the television star was sentenced to one year in prison, and the payment of 110 million Lebanese pounds (about 1,100 euros) in damages, following a complaint filed against her by the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL) and son-in-law of former President Michel Aoun, who accused him of defamation and slander.
The case goes back three years. Dima Sadek and blogger Gino Raidy had been summoned by the judicial police after the filing of a complaint by the CPL in February 2020. The day after his conviction, the journalist recalled, on Twitter, the context of the case. “In February 2020, everyone remembers that two young men from Tripoli were assaulted by the CPL. One was attacked by the bodyguards of [l’ancien député] Ziad Assouad, and the other, named Zakaria Al-Masri (…) says in his written statement that he was beaten and forced to say “Aoun is your God and the God of Tripoli”. Gebran Bassil is suing me in the Zakaria Al-Masri casesays Dima Sadek. In both cases, I said that these actions were racist and Nazi. »
The head of the CPL had accused the journalist of inciting hatred and racism, at the risk of provoking sectarian conflicts, by disseminating false information. ‘When they beat the man, it was not incitement to sectarian strife’quips Dima Sadek in the video posted on Twitter on Tuesday. “And they weren’t arrested or tried and nobody said a word to them. But a verdict has been pronounced to put me in prison, I who condemned this act”she continues, regretting “a very dangerous precedent for freedom of journalism, media and expression in Lebanon”.
“Dangerous precedent”
Dima Sadek received the support of the Order of Journalists, who said his “total refusal of custodial sanctions against any journalist who has committed an offense in his publications”. The order, quoted by the daily The Orient-The Dayreiterated its opposition to “any appearance of journalists in matters of opinion before any body other than the court of publications”. This court has not handed down any prison sentences in the cases relating to freedom of opinion that it has examined since the 1990s.
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