Former Minister of State for Financial Affairs Fouad Siniora was summoned Wednesday for questioning for alleged violation of the law when he exempted Solidere's foreign investors from paying taxes, a judicial source in Beirut said. Mr. Siniora is due to be questioned next week by the chief public prosecutor for financial fraud, Ahmad Taqieddine. He is accused of exempting the company from a 10 percent tax imposed on foreigners who buy real estate.
Lawyer and human-rights activist Mohammed Moghrabi said in a petition to Mr. Taqieddine that the former minister had justified his decision by saying that the foreign investors in Solidere were not buying real estate directly but shares in a real-estate company. Mr. Moghrabi also accused Youssef Khalil, keeper of the Real Estate Record, of conspiring with Mr. Siniora in the move, which deprived the Treasury of considerable revenue.
Mr. Siniora was abroad Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. The former minister is a high-ranking administrator at some of the companies of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who is the largest single investor in Solidere.
In a separate development, Mr. Taqieddine listened Wednesday as Mr. Moghrabi detailed his claim that Sidon MP Bahiya Hariri had pocketed $5 million worth of aid allocated to the families of 107 people killed in Israel's attack on Qana in 1996. The Council of the South, the government agency charged with giving aid to victims of Israeli assaults, issued a statement last month accusing Ms. Hariri of keeping the aid for herself instead of handing it out to its rightful beneficiaries. She responded by saying that all the aid had come from her brother, the former prime minister, who asked at the time to remain anonymous. It was all distributed to those eligible, she said, adding that information related to the beneficiaries "shouldn't be given to any party other than the donors."
In a message to Mr. Taqieddine, Mr. Moghrabi said Ms. Hariri "doesn't represent an official authority to distribute aid to begin with," arguing that the matter "deserves to be investigated." It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Taqieddine was preparing for a judicial move against Ms. Hariri.