May 10/2000

The CLHRF is deeply concerned about the escalation of infringements on Human Rights in Lebanon:
1-Lawful social and professional; gatherings have been banned by secret service agents.
2-Acts of intimidation and harassment accompanied scores of groundless raids waged by military forces on students’ and other Human Rights Advocates’ residences.
3-Excessive harsh force has been used to quash peaceful students’ sit-ins staged to vindicate the release of their unlawfully detained comrades.
4-Expedited unwarranted military trials were held and uncorroborated indictments were delivered to many students.
5-A "mysterious" vicious assault targeted Attorney "Salim Gharious, member of the Bar Association Retirement Fund Committee..
6-Most recently the well-respected and internationally recognized Human Rights Authority, Dr. Muhamad Mugraby was targeted in a bid to prosecute him, because he pinpointed some malpractices that compromise the integrity of four judges.

Instead of launching a judicial investigation based on the documented objective evidence produced by Dr. Mugraby, he has been put rather in the hot seat as if he were the culprit. The fact is that Dr. Mugraby’s integrity, his zeal in Human Rights Advocacy, his knowledge depth, his professionalism earned him a commendable dignifying international reputation.

Dr. Mugraby is a prominent tribune entrusted by the people of Lebanon and the Human Rights Organizations. Any attempt to twist his grievances, in order to prosecute him, would be a flagrant violation of his unalienable right to the freedom of speech enshrined in the Lebanese constitution which pledges the observance of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights.

Such abuses of power constitute an impairment of justice, a jeopardy to Democracy and a stigma to the legacy of:" Beirut the Mother of Laws", Lebanon the co-founder of "The League of Nations" and co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Drafted by Dr. Charles Malek).

The countless influential friends of Dr. Mugraby throughout the world will not tolerate the thickening plot of injustice looming in the horizons prevailing in Lebanon. Any alienation of the justice will backlash on the perpetrators.

CLHRF Vice President
Hamid Aouad
==================================================================