FPM's Gebran Bassil warns against impunity in corruption cases: 'We cannot remain silent'

President of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, emphasized that "the presidential vacuum and the risks of war and displacement should not make us forget the financial collapse that accelerated after October 17."

On Tuesday, he noted that "this is a just cause we will not forget, nor will we remain silent about, especially since former President Michel Aoun was behind the forensic audit and the preliminary report yielded alarming results."

Bassil stressed in a press conference on the issue of corruption following the movement's regular meeting that "the recovery of depositors' funds is not mere rhetoric, but requires action through the recovery of funds transferred abroad selectively. We have proposed a law to recover these funds."

He said: "To date, 'Alvarez & Marsal' has not been provided with the required figures, and we are following up on the Optimum file," noting that "corruption files that led to looting depositors' funds from banks cannot be ignored, and we cannot live in a country where corruption thrives. The principle of impunity cannot be tolerated."

He added: "We will not remain silent, and during the bloc meeting, we signed a set of questions for the government in which we provided the necessary details and posed 10 questions revolving around preventing the judiciary from doing its job and the destinations to which the funds were transferred."

"We will give a short period; if we do not get an answer, we will go to the judiciary. We have contacted international lawyers about the possibility of filing complaints and reports in European countries to pursue the case in European courts. We will stay on this; it is our cause, mission, and message, and we will follow it to the end," Bassil noted.

He highlighted that "Judge Ghada Aoun was targeted to have the case removed from her, and while you may be able to take it from a Lebanese judge, you will not be able to take it from the Free Patriotic Movement."