April 11, 2019 Request from Case Authority Lawyer to Enforcement Department

Apr 11, 2019 Share on

Omar Wafiq Tarabah

Lebanese State Attorney

Civil and Arbitration Cases

Phd in law

 

 

[Handwriting] received on April 15, 2019

[Ministry of Justice Stamp]

April 12, 2019

Signed by the head of the case authority based on a memo from the administration dated April 1, 2019, received by the registrar on April 3, 2019. The memo was referred by Jad al-Hashem on January 9, 2019 [illegible] Filed on April 24, 2019

 

Case number: 137/2014

Basic number: 1019/2018

Party requesting the sale: The Lebanese State, represented by lawyer Omar Tarabah

Parties of the sale:

1. BUNKERNET LTD

Represented by Mr. Samir Baroudi and Mr. Jean Baroudi

1. Owners, suppliers, renters and captain of the ship RHOSUS and TETO SHIPPING LTD corporation

Represented by the ship’s agent in Beirut’s port

***** ***** ******

1. A preliminary injunction was issued on October 15, 2018, stipulating that the Rhosus shipwreck be auctioned off after appointing expert Fuad al-Shaar and mandating him with inspecting and evaluating the said shipwreck, provided that the enforcer is given an advanced payment of seven hundred thousand Lebanese liras as part of expert’s fees.
2. The decision has been communicated to the administration, and instead of implementing the said decision and depositing the advance payment of seven hundred thousand Lebanese liras, it sent us a letter indicating that it has reserved the said amount pending an invoice for this amount that the expert would later submit to the administration.
3. The administration’s letter was added to the enforcement transaction file and communicated to the expert.
4. The expert has not proceeded with the mission. We were contacted by the Beirut Enforcement Department to notify us that pursuant to the Enforcement Department’s decision stipulating to pay /700,000 L.L./ in advance to the expert, the administration should, as per due procedures, deposit the advance payment in the enforcement transaction file until the expert has finished his mission, and that it is the Enforcement Department who decides regarding the expert’s advance payment, which requires the administration to deposit the advance payment in the enforcement transaction file to proceed to continue the enforcement procedures.
5. We have sent several urgent letters to the administration asking it to deposit the advance amount in the enforcement transaction file. However, the administration has lately stated that in its [official] capacity it could only pay an expense according to the provisions of the Public Accounting Law [ILLEGIBLE] and then after the expert has performed the mission and presented a document to prove the expense, the expense would be settled and sent to the Ministry of Finance to be paid. Hence, it cannot deposit the payment at the Enforcement Department.

(We are attaching the administration’s reply, document number 1)

Hence,

Based on the aforementioned, we request that you either notify expert Fuad al-Shaar, whom you have assigned, to perform the inspection before receiving the advance payment and then settle the payment later according to due procedures, or replace him with another expert.

 

Respectfully and with reservation                                                       April 19, 2019

Representative                                                                                                 Head of Case Authority

Attorney Omar Tarabah                                                                                 Judge Helena Iskandar

[STAMP]                                                                                                              [SIGNATURE]

 

 

Translated by Human Rights Watch