Hariri media office slams LBCI, Daher responds

The media office of former PM Saad Hariri responded on Thursday to the report aired by LBCI during its Tuesday news bulletin.       

LBCI’s report stated that Hariri had received generous funds from Saudi Arabia and Qatar under the pretext of a so called “bonus”.       

The office confirmed that the report, in its entirety, is totally false and unfounded. In a statement released, the office confirmed that “LBCI’s repeated false reports and instigation campaigns against Hariri coincide with media reports on LBCI’s chairman Pierre Daher’s meetings with head of Syrian Intelligence, Ali Mamlouk, who is accused by the Lebanese Judiciary of sending explosive devices to Lebanon to carry out terrorist attacks aiming at creating civil war, in a desperate attempt to rescue the monstrous regime in Damascus”.       

“We have known for a while of Mr. Daher’s decision to launch a slanderous campaign against [former PM] Hariri. He has placed himself at the service of the murderous regime of Bashar Assad, in an attempt to use non-judicial excuses to face the complaint filed against him by the Lebanese Forces that accused him of stealing the entire company”.      

"In light of Daher’s relinquishment of the standards of professional journalism, launching baseless rumors including which include latest story, we find ourselves unable but to respond and deny such fabrications which are being fashioned, generated and produced by several media outlets to distort public opinion".    

In contrast, Sheikh Pierre Daher responded in a statement confirming LBCI’s adherence to every piece of information denied by Hariri.

As for the rest of the statement released by his press office, Daher confirmed that LBCI will withhold from answering since the words said are not worthy of his [Hariri’s] stature, nor are they worthy of ‘our time or our interests’".