Randa Berri Twitter account a fake

LBCI has received verification from the office of Speaker Nabih Berri that the twitter account purported to be that of Randa Berri is, in fact, a fake account and does not reflect the views of Randa Berri or anyone speaking on her behalf.      

On Monday afternoon a Twitter account claiming to be that of Randa Berri began chalking up followers and fielding questions on the popular micro-blogging site. What followed was a conversation focused on simultaneously defending women's rights and head of parliament Nabih Berri while counter-attacking former PM Saad Hariri.        

Twitter user @RandaBerri, claiming to be Randa Berri, head of the Berri Foundation and married to speaker Nabih Berri, was first noticed when the account began following several active Lebanese bloggers, and opened up an impromptu Q&A session with, "My dear friends, I will start answering your questions now, so please feel free to ask anything."         

And "ask anything" they did. When @RandaBerri mentioned that Saad Hariri "should be asked why is he taking Lebanon to a civil war because of his military support to the Free Syrian Army terrorists", one user responded with, "Terrorists? Leave politics to your husband". A particularly swift response followed from the Berri account: "...please don't use a condescending paternalistic language, we are women, let's talk like women."    

The conversation bounced between favorite books and the paralympic games, but @RandaBerri seemed to give particular focus to Saad Hariri and his recent activity on Twitter. A particular tweet sent before the Q&A session stated that, "@HaririSaad should learn his limits when talking about my husband, who saved him many times. He should say where are the [$]60 Billion" started a round of accusations that Nabih Berri was also responsible in the disappearance of Lebanese funds to which the Berri account later responded "Please do not believe the rumours spread about me, I really have no assets, financial or business interests."