During an interview with MTV on Sunday, Future bloc MP Ammar Houri said there is information that former MP Emile Lahoud – the son of former President Emile Lahoud - profited from an internet company that was closed last week on suspicion have having links to Israel.

Last week the General Prosecutor’s Office closed the company’s offices, after the case was highlighted in a report issued by Telecommunication Minister Gebran Bassil. Houri said that Bassil had known about the case since April but that no one at the ministry knew the details.

Former MP Lahoud released a statement later on Sunday refuting the accusations, stating that they are part of an organized campaign. He said he would refer the case to the Lebanese judicial system to prove to the public “who has dealt with and is still dealing with Israel, even if it is at the expense of his country, people, army and the Resistance.”

In other comments, Houri said that while Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt has left the structural organization of the March 14 alliance, he is still counted within the parliamentary majority.

“We are not worried about Jumblatt’s position, especially after he justified his recent stances to us,” he said.

Houri stressed that “Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun is the only obstacle in the way of the cabinet formation since he insists on having one of the key ministerial portfolios and appointing candidates who lost the elections,” in reference to Aoun’s son-in-law and current Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil. 

-NOW Staff