Mugraby Request for Doctor Flatly Denied
August 20, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Mugraby said the following in a statement through his spokesperson:

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Joseph Maamari, the public prosecutor of Beirut, has turned down a written request by Dr. Mugraby's lawyer to have him examined at the Roumieh Jail by two of his doctors who are specialists. This is the second time that such request has been flatly denied. Under the prison regulations, admission to jails is controlled by prosecutors for persons under temporary detention, such as Dr. Mugraby.

On Tuesday, August 19, all three judges on a panel of the Beirut court of appeals recused themselves in order not to make a decision on an appeal filed by Dr. Mugraby's lawyers against his arrest warrant. The chief of the panel, Samir Alia, cited his own reasons and the other two judges declared solidarity with him. Alia stated, as the reason for his stepping down, that Dr. Mugraby had sought to have him recused from sitting as prosecutor before a Sunni Sharia Court more than five years ago. In fact, the panel made a preliminary procedural ruling on Monday directing the bar organization to file an answer. More seriously, only almost one year ago, Mr. Alia ruled against Dr. Mugraby's request to recover the bond he had volunteered to post in order to free another lawyer, Abdullah Ghotaimi, a former member of parliament, because Ghotaimi could not post his own bond. Mr. Ghotaimi had passed away after attending trial. It is therefore very obvious that the recusal of the appellate panel is a thinly veiled maneuver to delay Dr. Mugraby's release. For it will take several days to have a new panel formed and it is not beyond expectations for this process to take much more time or for the newly appointed judges to recuse themselves too.

Dr. Mugraby had been working very hard for the cause of the integrity and independence of the judiciary both through his actions as a lawyer and through his leadership of the Campaign for Judicial Integrity.