Timeline of Events

Thursday, August 7, 2003

At 11.00 am, two policemen from the central criminal investigations arrived at Dr Muhamad Mugraby's office and handed him a written note that summons him to appear the next day at the mentioned department's bureau for interrogation on a judicial case.

Friday, August 8, 2003

At 9.00 am, Dr Muhamad Mugraby arrived at the department of central criminal investigations in the Ministry of Justice's building. Colonel Osman and the First Adjutant Beiruti, at the request of the general prosecutor Addoum, carried out an interrogation.

The subject of the questioning was a complaint filed against him by the Beirut Bar Association, accusing him of "impersonating a lawyer".

Based on the interrogatory and after the review of the chief general prosecutor Addoum and Beirut's public prosecutor Joseph Maamari, an order was made by the latter to arrest the lawyer, end the interrogatory and deliver the file to Addoum the next day.

Saturday, August 9, 2003

After a series of transfers, the file arrived at the desk of Beirut's public prosecutor Joseph Maamari who charged Dr. Mugraby of "impersonating a lawyer", a crime cited in the articles 110 and 111 of the Lawyer regulatory code, and the codes 110 and 111 of bar association's disciplinary system, and the codes 391 and 393 of the penal code. Then he transferred the file to Beirut's investigating magistrate, asking him to produce against him a face to face arrest warrant.

The same day, Beirut's investigating magistrate, Majed Mzayhem interrogated the lawyer Muhamad Mugraby who remained firm on his professional immunity and presented to the investigating magistrate all the decisions related to the case of Mr. Atef Chaar.

However, the investigating magistrate issued an arrest warrant for him without any legal explanation or justification. Subsequently, he set the date Tuesday August 12, 2003 for continuance since the plaintiff is the bar association. Mr. Mugraby was taken into custody at the detention center of the Justice Ministry.

Monday, August 11, 2003

At 9.00 am, Dr Mugraby presented a request to the investigating magistrate, the Judge Majed Mzayhem, to recall the arrest warrant due to illegality and unlawfulness of the arrest. Meanwhile, an appeal to the decision of the arrest was presented before Beirut's arraignment committee. The bar association was informed of the request for the recall of the arrest warrant at 12.00 pm. At the same time this committee transferred the file to the attorney general for review by the prosecuting attorney.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

At 11.00 am Beirut's arraignment committee which consists of the judge Jamil Bayrum and his advisors judge Ghada Aoun and Imad Kablan received the file with the revision of the prosecuting attorney, and made its decision to reject the appeal and confirm the investigating magistrate's decision of the arrest without any explanation other than the right of consideration.

At 12.00 pm, the file was transferred back to the department of the investigating Magistrate Mzayhem who held a session that lasted about one and half hour.

Nabil Toubia represented the Bar association by appointment from Mohamed Chehab, the bar association's secretary. The lawyer Mugraby refused the bar association representative stating that "only the president of the Bar association or whoever holds a power of attorney could represent the association."

The judge ended the discussion by ascertaining Nabil Toubia's unlawful representation of the bar association and postponed the session to the next day.

At this point, the lawyer Muhamad Mugraby requested his release upon which the judge decided to notify immediately the bar association of this request. But just when the courier tried to inform the Bar association of this, he found that their offices closed early and all employees having left for the day making it impossible to inform them legally.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

At 9.00 am the bar association was informed of the request for release and the time of the court session.

At 10.30am, the lawyer Elias Abu Eid appeared to represent the bar association. The session was held when the lawyer Mugraby arrived.

Mr. Abu Eid made several arbitrary defenses concerning the representatives of the lawyer Mugraby needing permission from the bar association, and of Mr. Toubia's legal representation of it the previous day, the judge decided to reject all these claims.

Afterwards, when the lawyer Mugraby tried to inquire about the leak of the bar association complaint to the newspaper Al-diyar, wondering if the Bar association or the office of the investigation magistrate could be responsible. Mr. Abu Eid reacted by trying to cause a problem with the judge, and stating that Mr. Mugraby is "accusing the bar association" ,and describing this as a "dangerous accusation", and also insisting that this should be written in the court report although the judge assured him that no accusation was made by Dr Mugraby.

When Mr. Abu Eid stood firmly on his position with insistence threatening withdrawal, the judge refused to comply with his wish, Mr. Abu Eid withdrew from the session without giving any attestation of the complaint.

The judge delayed the request of the release to the next day to allow the bar association its rightful 24 hours to reply.

It became apparent that the general prosecutor Maamari on the same day requested the transfer of the lawyer Mugraby to the prison in Roumieh, but the investigation magistrate Mzayhem refused and insisted that Mr. Mugraby remain at the detention center of the Justice Ministry.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

At 9.00 am, the bar association presented an appeal to the decision made by the investigation magistrate regarding the decision against Mr. Nabil Toubia's representation of the association with the objection of the request of the release.

At 10.00am, the investigation magistrate Majed Mzyahem arrived to his office to look into the request of release. He was contacted immediately by the First Investigation magistrate Hatem Madi and called to appear at his office.

The judge Mzyahem spent approximately one hour there then returned to his office and sent the file to the general prosecutor of appeals Joseph Maamari to have his opinion concerning the release.

Half an hour after receiving the file, the general prosecutor went up to the investigation magistrate Mzyahem where he remained for about half an hour.

Then the general prosecutor left the office of Mzayhem with a sulky face and went toward his office where he recorded on the report of the file his decision refusing the request of release and the return of the file to him to give his opinion in the appeal filed by the bar association.

After the file was delivered to the office of the judge Mzyahem, the judge Nidal Chamseddine, his wife, arrived at her husband's office where she remained about half an hour and then departed. The judge Mzyahem called the lawyer Muhamad Fakih, one of the two councils or (attorneys) for the lawyer Mugraby and notified him that he's obliged to refuse the request of the release which in fact he did by producing a decision rejecting the request without explanation.

At 2:00pm, the councils of Mr. Mugraby presented an appeal to the fore mentioned decision and the file was transferred to the prosecuting committee. At 3:00pm, the Lawyer Muhamad Mugraby was transferred from the jail in the Justice Ministry to the prison in Roumieh. There his legal books were confiscated and he was put in a small cell overcrowded with inmates and in grave health conditions.

Friday, August 15, 2003

Official Holiday

Saturday, August 16, 2003

The councils for the lawyer Mugraby presented an addendum to their appeal consisting of an introduction written by the lawyer Mugraby himself.

The prosecuting committee failed to appear, therefore, all issues were postponed until the following Monday.

Monday, August 18, 2003

The chief appeals magistrate the Judge Samir Alie (and a replacement prosecuting committee) arrived at his office where the file was presented to him.

The judge Samir Alieh decided it necessary to deliver the Bar association a copy of the appeal and its addendum to allow them to respond within a 24 hour period.

The file was served at 11:10am to the Bar Association president personally who chose to use the right of refusal to accept. As a result of the absence of the court panel and the passing of the 24 hour period for the Bar associations reply, the examination of the file was postponed until Tuesday August 19, 2003.

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

At 9:00am the bar association presented a reply to the appeal rejecting it.

At 10:30am the file was presented to the court committee, and its head the Judge Alieh decided to step down from the case citing embarrassment due to a previous case with the Lawyer Mugraby in the shariaa court where Alieh was appointed by the state.

Meanwhile, the other two members of the committee, the judges Therese Aalawi and Muhamad el Masri joined Alieh and stepped down from the case giving no explanation.

Immediately after the panel's decisions to step down, the file was transferred to the first chief of appeals court the judge Jihad al Wadi who referred the file directly to the presiding appeals court committee. The committee, headed by the Judge Maysam Nuweiry along with the two judges Ghada Aoun and Fadi Elias was to examine the panel's decision to stand down and return the file to Judge Wadi for a new court panel to be assigned for the appeal.

However, the appeals court committee received the file but failed to produce a decision before the day was over.

Wednesday August 20, 2003

The appeals court committee head Judge Nuweiry failed to appear.

The first chief of appeals court the judge Jihad al Wadi also failed to appear at his post and the entire case was in turn postponed until Thursday August 21, 2003.

Thursday August 21, 2003

The appeals court committee head Judge Nuweiry failed to process the file citing that Mugraby's case needs further review and study. She postponed the case to Tuesday, August 26, 2003.

Thursday August 28, 2003

Investigative Magistrate of Beirut Judge Malek Saaiby resolved the issue of Dr. Muhamad Mugraby's unlawful arrest, ongoing since August 8 ,2003. He decided to accept the request of Dr. Mugraby's release presented by his lawyers and representatives, Mohamad Faqih and Jihad Abu Nader.

The decision of the release was in accordance with the findings of the General Court of Appeals in Beirut, and in contradiction to the position held by the Beirut Bar Association, which issued a warrant to rebut the request. Mr. Raymond Chedid, president of the Beirut Bar Association, was notified of the decision to release Dr. Mugraby at 12 30PM today. The Bar Association has the right to appeal the mentioned decision within an allowed period of 24 hours. Saaiby's decision is completely in line with the opinion of Chief Judge Maysam Noueiry, Head of the Court of Appeals in Beirut, who objected to the decision of the accusatory committee in Beirut and confirmed the illegality of the arrest on August 26, 2003.

The decision to release Dr. Muhamad Mugraby was met with relief by human rights organizations, lawyers, and Lebanese citizens.

Friday August 29, 2003

Mugraby Released!