The vacancy in the judicial body is 30% and the bleeding is continuing

The percentage of vacancy in the judicial corps is estimated at about 30%. And to the required appointments in the positions of the Presidency of Judicial Inspection, the Financial Public Prosecutor and the Public Prosecutor, the first chiefs of the five courts of appeal in all governorates are certain of assignment, not with originality. Also, all ten members of the Supreme Judicial Council, the duration of their mandate ended, in addition to the General Authority of the Court of Discrimination, and the vacancy in a large number of rooms for the Accounting Bureau.

This reality and the impact it has on the work of the deficiency of justice, where the files accumulate before the judges, it is complicated by the continued bleeding in the judicial corps, as this year has resigned three judges, the last of which is Judge Antoine Tohmeh three weeks ago, bringing the number of judges who submitted their resignations or requests for deposit in the years after the economic crisis to about 25 judges. For the first time, the Higher Institute for the judiciary stops opening its doors to the binding courses of the judges, which lasts three years, before they are appointed as authentic judges. It is a forced stop caused by the lack of allocations and credits necessary for the institute, which means that the judicial corps will not be supplied with new authentic judges until three years after the date of the institute’s restoration of its activity, knowing that the last batch of judges came out by the institute was in 2023. The low value of salaries is the first reason to leave the judges.

While the judge’s salary before the financial collapse ranged between 3000 and 4000 dollars, it fell between 300 and 400 dollars, and after a judicial i’tikaaf was the longest in the history of Lebanon, which lasted five months in 2022, the judges obtained financial assistance from the Judges Fund with a value of $ 1,000 added to the salary. However, the same fund is unable to cover the expenses of hospitalization and education for judges and their families except with very low limits.

The judicial reform that the President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, talked about in the department’s speech, and promised by Nassar upon receiving the ministry, first requires reforming the conditions of the judges in preparation for stopping the bleeding, and raising the level of productivity, which barely reaches 50% in light of an internal “displacement” of the judges within the body of the state itself, as a number of them moved to work in the state administrations as governors, two general managers and ministers, knowing that the judiciary law It was approved in the 1950s, the number of judges was determined at 500, when the population of Lebanon did not exceed three million. In connection, the advancement of the judicial authority requires the advancement of its justice. All the courts of Lebanon lack the lowest conditions of work, from stationery and lighting, forcing the judges to work in the light of phones, because of the lack of diesel to operate generators or heating, especially in mountainous areas, to the absence of toilets, water interruption, and the end of cleaning and maintenance contracts.

In front of this, how can a basic goal be achieved to accelerate trials and reduce the overcrowding of prisons that reached 300%, and where 70% of the detainees were not issued judgments against them, not to mention the problem of Syrian prisoners, who number 2500 out of 9000, or 35% of the prisoners.

Al -Akhbar learned that a problem occurred between the Nassar team as soon as the ministry received and the Director General of the Ministry, Mohamed Al -Masry, who protested what he called an infringement of his powers, before the Minister of Justice reached a mechanism for coordination between the two parties