The Cradle
Lebanese media revealed that, as part of the investigation, there will be an audit of properties belonging to the archbishop
As part of the investigation, the Lebanese security service will conduct an audit of properties owned by the archbishop.
Al-Hajj was caught while attempting to smuggle $460,000 and €4,000 in cash, and a car-load of medicine from Israel into Lebanon.
The smuggling attempt constitutes a major violation of Lebanese law and the Arab boycott laws.
The Lebanese cleric was questioned by the security service for 12 hours upon his arrest last week, and was subsequently released as a result of pressure exerted on the Directorate of General Security and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) by the Maronite political and religious establishment.
“It is not clear whether al-Hajj will be summoned again after he failed to appear before the court, given the political and religious protection that he enjoys,” sources told Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
The Patriarch of Lebanon’s Maronite Church, Bechara al-Rai, has demanded an end to the efforts of the Lebanese state at detaining and questioning Al-Hajj – efforts which also aim to “[limit] his mission to [leading the congregations] and to stop his transfer of funds from the occupied lands,” the Lebanese media outlet reported.
During a gathering led by Patriarch Al-Rai outside his residence in the Maronite village of Diman on 24 May, the Patriarch asserted that Al-Hajj must be allowed to continue collecting what he referred to as ‘aid’ from the occupied territories.
The Patriarch also demanded that the state return all confiscated funds to the archbishop, and that Archbishop al-Hajj be assured of his full freedom of movement to and from the occupied lands.
Al-Rai called for the Archbishop’s exemption from Lebanese inspection laws – laws which are applied to anyone who travels back and forth from the Palestinian territories.
Informed sources revealed to Al-Akhbar that Al-Hajj may be receiving financial compensation in exchange for the transfer of funds from Israel to Lebanon.
Last week, it was revealed that the archbishop had been smuggling cash into Lebanon from Israel on nearly a monthly basis, and that the funds were used to buy land and infrastructure for members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), an Israeli-trained Lebanese Christian militia that aided Tel Aviv in its occupation of southern Lebanon throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The money brought in by Al-Hajj was also destined for Mossad agents recently arrested in Lebanon, reports said.
Other reports revealed that the archbishop had previously been monitored by security forces in view of his contacts with SLA members who fled to Israel when the Lebanese resistance liberated south Lebanon in May 2000.
For several years, Al-Hajj led prayers in Israel attended by SLA members and their families.
Most notably, he led mass attended by the Israeli government and army representatives to commemorate the death of the SLA commander general Antoine Lahad in 2015.
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