Ministries scuffle over illegal Barouk telecom network

BEIRUT: The sparring match within the government over a telecommunications station in the Barouk area of the Chouf heated up on Thursday, as two ministers traded charges of “indirectly defending Israel” and negligence. Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil began the latest row at a news conference, where he accused the justice minister in the outgoing government, Ibrahim Najjar, of ignoring the seriousness of the matter. 

Bassil criticized Najjar for “indirectly” defending Israel with regard to the Barouk case, and urged judicial authorities to intensify their investigations into the matter. “I cannot imagine Lebanon’s justice minister acting like he was indirectly defending Israel,” he said. 

Bassil also clarified his earlier remarks on the issue, denying that he had ever said the Barouk network was an “Israeli station,” – he stressed that it was a Lebanese facility, with its antenna directed toward Israel. 

“Israel was the only party profiting from the station and if the issue is seriously investigated, all of the details will be revealed,” Bassil said. 

Bassil said the judicial authorities had the resources to reveal the facts in the case, adding that investigations should track the source of the station’s equipment.

He also criticized “the country’s higher authorities” for obstructing his ministry’s efforts to halt violations in the sector, calling on them to refrain from making judgments based on “double standards.” 

“We resorted to the public prosecutor’s office to inform it about the case; but the answer came back that the case had been temporarily set aside, due to a lack of evidence,” he said. 

Bassil is an official in the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun; Najjar is part of the rival March 14 movement. 

In response, the Justice Ministry released a statement saying Bassil’s allusion to the ministry’s role in defending Israel was “unworthy of comment since his claims “lacked “seriousness” and basis in fact. 

The statement accused Bassil of fabricating claims to cover up the Telecommunication Ministry’s failure to provide the judicial authorities with any evidence, while attempting to turn the issue into a “media event.” 

The Justice Ministry argued that the Telecommunication Ministry reported financial violations at the illegal Barouk station, rather than the involvement of Israel in spying operations, since Bassil filed a report on April 2 to the financial public prosecutor, and not the country’s military prosecutor. 

“The military public prosecution did not receive any complaints regarding Israeli spying operations on civil and security Lebanese posts from the Barouk station, but rather a report from Bassil pointing out illegitimate internet and communication services,” the statement said. 

The statement added that Bassil, in his report to the judicial authorities, requested help from security personnel for the Telecommunication’s Ministry technical team to dismantle the station’s equipment, which took place two days later, on April 4. 

The Justice Ministry stressed that it was only on August 18 that Bassil’s ministry mentioned in a report that equipment used by the Barouk station was Israeli-made. The statement said that since the station was dismantled on April 4, it was impossible for the security forces to determine its link to Israel. 

According to the statement, army intelligence informed the Justice Ministry following investigations that it was impossible to determine whether the transmission operations of the station were linked to Israeli spying operations, since the network had already been dismantled. 

The Justice Ministry added that army intelligence had been unable to determine the source of the equipment, since they lacked serial numbers. 

“We submit this information to the public in the hope that the individual lodging accusations would instead provide the judicial authorities with evidence, or the wish that he had refrained from dismantling the network only two days following a report [on its activities],” the statement said.