In December 2013, Jumblatt’s lawyers, Walid Sfeir and Hussam Rasbey, filed two lawsuits against Bahij Abu Hamzah before the first investigative judge of Beirut, Ghassan Oweidat. One of the complaints centers on a land dispute.
Abu Hamzah is a leading businessman who at one point held close relations with Jumblatt. He once ran the PSP chief’s real estate deeds and managed Jumblatt's private properties. Abu Hamzah was also the former head of the Association of Oil Importing Companies.
But the relations between the two have cooled significantly in recent months, when MP Jumblatt relieved Abu Hamzah of his duties after almost 30 years of service.
In one of the lawsuits filed by Jumblatt, he accuses Abu Hamzeh 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 Abu Hamzeh 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 Hamzah’s lawyers presented petitions asking Jumblatt to drop the lawsuits.