Immunity was withdrawn late Monday night from four Syrian members of parliament as a first step to send them to the court on corruption charges.
Speaker of Parliament Abdul Qader Qaddoura announced that he gave a permission, during the house vacation, to the judicial authorities to file a case against four members of the Syrian Parliament: Muawiyah Abdulwahed, Mustafa Alayed, Mohammad Mahyoub and Rafiq Darwish.
According to Qaddoura’s statement, published by the Syrian official newspapers Tuesday, the immunities have been withdrawn from the suspects to enable them to defend themselves and prove their innocence before the court.
The Syrian Economic Security Court will charge the four MPs with embezzlement, misuse of power and smuggling money outside the country.
Commenting on the subject, Munzer Mouselly, Syrian MP, told Jordan’s official news agency (Petra) that the procedure was based on a constitutional provision that makes room for the withdrawal of immunity from members of Parliament in certain cases. He said that the speaker was authorized to give permission to the judiciary to bring the suspects before the court “since the deputies were in a recess.”
However, Mouselly pointed out that the aforementioned MPs are accused of committing offences that are basically included in the presidential amnesty. He added that the issue has been exaggerated and it was nothing but administrative violations.
“It would be better for an MP to lose immunity, appear before the court and be acquitted rather than remaining under suspicion. It is to his and the parliament’s best interest to be tried,” Mouselly stressed.
Mustafa Alayed is currently the head of the Farmers’ Union, a member of the Central Committee of the ruling Baath Party and a member of the National Progressive Front consisting of eight different parties under the leadership of the Baath Party.
The development is seen as an indicator that the anti-corruption campaign, which was launched by President Bashar Al Assad before he took office, is continuous. Dubbed as the “Clean Hands Campaign,” it saw the stepping down, and suicide, of former premier, Mahmoud Zu’bi, and the trial of a number of Syrian ministers and officials.
Former Syrian deputy premier for economic affairs, Salim Yasin, and the former Transportation Minister, Mufid Abdulkari, have appeared before the Economic Security Court on charges of corruption, bribery, and public money embezzlement related to the scandal known as “the Airbus Deal” with France. The two have been detained since last year and their properties sequestered - Albawaba.com
