The Council for Development and Reconstruction paid more than LL5 billion in "bribes" on Solidere's behalf to judges who assessed the value of downtown Beirut real estate, charged a lawyer representing disgruntled property owners. "None of these illegal payments, which squandered public money, were listed in CDR's budget. This means that they were not legitimate payments, " said Mohammed Mugraby at a news conference at the Alexandre Hotel in Achrafieh.
Contacted by The Daily Star, Solidere declined to comment on the accusations.
Mugraby's charges came only two days after a Beirut MP accused the real-estate company of corrupt business practices. Mugraby said that the bribes were never a subject of investigation when Rafik Hariri, who is Solidere's founding father and largest single shareholder, was in office. After Prime Minister Salim Hoss' government assumed power in December, CDR filed a lawsuit against Solidere for failing to reimburse the government for the payments to the judges. Seven committees headed by judges have accepted payments, each pocketing over $350,000 between 1993 and 1997, according to Mugraby. The judges were all named in CDR's lawsuit.
The judges headed committees which determined the amount of compensation given in Solidere shares to downtown real-estate owners and tenants who were forced from their properties. "The committees estimated the land way below its true value and prepared forged inspection reports instead of doing their jobs," said Mugraby.
He distributed to the press copies of the lawsuit, which was filed by CDR's lawyer, Antoine Qlimos, who also heads Lebanon's Bar Association. Qlimos petitioned the Beirut lower court, which handles financial lawsuits, for an order forcing Solidere to pay CDR over LL5 billion plus interest accrued from 1993. However, Mugraby said that the illegal payments to judges continued until January 1999, when Nabil Jisr, former CDR president, left office. "This means that CDR should demand repayment for another two years," he said. "This CDR lawsuit verified the suspicions of many lawyers who doubted the integrity of judges who handled cases against Solidere," said Mugraby, "In all of them, Solidere either won quickly or the cases were postponed indefinitely."
He called upon corrupt judges to step aside while "honest" judges took the necessary steps to investigate the abuse of power in the court system. He also called on CDR's president, Mahmoud Othman, to publish a list detailing the payments to judges and other members of the assessment committees.
Mugraby said that he presented his case to the "highest executive authority," alluding to President Emile Lahoud. "I informed other high-ranking officials about this issue, but they were never as shocked as I was. Either they were not qualified as law experts or they were too busy dealing with other scandals," said Mugraby.
Among the property owners who attended the news conference, Ovadis Hamalian, 75. appeared to be the most furious. Last year, policemen and Solidere employees broke into his house in Zoqaq al-Blat, facing the Serail, and "brutally" evicted himself and his wife, he claimed.
"They cut our telephone line to stop us from calling for help, kicked us out of our house and stored our furniture and clothes at the company's warehouses," said Hamalian, who has been living with relatives for the past 14 months. "We filed five lawsuits but the hearings, which were chaired by judges who take orders from Solidere, were repeatedly postponed since the rulings would have been in our favor," he said. "I just can't believe that 14 months after we were made homeless, Solidere is still getting away with its crimes," he added.
Mugraby called on the government to shut down the company, arguing that it was founded illegally. "Solidere usurped sea and land, public and private property, and started selling and renting it while giving original land owners worthless shares which are not marked for sale," said Mugraby. "It's not too late to change this situation, and give the original owners back their rights."