Information Minister Ramzi Jreij stated on Thursday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam reiterated during the cabinet session the necessity to elect a new president, point out that presidential void is yielding negative repercussions on all constitutional institutions.
Following the cabinet session, Minister Jreij noted that ministers agreed to end the service of the Sidon governmental administration board after it had resigned.
He also stated that ministers primarily approved exportation' subsidies, adding that they tasked IDAL (Investment Development Authority of Lebanon) with studying the cost of exporting agricultural and industrial products to Jordan and the Gulf region.
Prior to the session, Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan said that respecting the judicial system and its verdicts must not be selective, while Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said the Law must not compromised, stressing that accountability must be held in accordance to one unified standard.
For his part, Environment Minister Mohammad al-Mashnouq said the case of former Information Minister Michel Samaha was handled "with political intervention, while it should have been approached solely through legal means."
On another note, Minister Mashnouq said that the security appointments will not be discussed prior to May 25th.
Former Information Minister Michel Samaha was sentenced Wednesday to four and a half years in prison, and stripped of all civil rights. The verdict also stipulates that his years of detention would be counted from the day he was incarcerated, leaving him to serve the remaining 11 months in prison according to Samaha’s defense attorney.
Samaha, who had close ties with the Syrian regime, was arrested in August 2012 for plotting attacks in Lebanon along with two Syrian officials.
His trial started in June 2013 but had been repeatedly postponed for failing to summon Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel identified only by his first name, Adnan, the cases of whom were included in Samaha’s trial.
Last March, the tribunal decided to separate the trial of detainee Michel Samaha from that of Syrian security Chief General Ali Mamlouk.