Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Friday that Lebanon must develop a judicial system similar to the one in the United States after it refused to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees.
“I wish that the judicial system in Lebanon resembles that of the United States which suspended a draft law issued by Trump against immigration,” said Jumblat in a tweet.
“The American judiciary dealt a slap in the face to Trump’s chaotic policy,” added Jumblat.
He went on and asked: “When will we see a similar governing body in the Arab world?”
On January 27, Trump issued a decree that summarily denied entry to all refugees for 120 days, and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. Refugees from Syria were blocked indefinitely.
A US court on Thursday unanimously refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, dealing the new president and his controversial law-and-order agenda a major defeat.
For his part, former Minister Wiaam Wahhab –a Druze rival of Jumblat—criticized the latter’s tweets and said: “Lebanon can witness such a judicial system only when people like you stop pressuring the it into the continued detention of Bahij Abou Hamzah.”
Abou Hamzah, ex-Jumblat aide and businessman, was sentenced to jail on charges filed by Jumblat.
“You must stop hypocrisy because when Lebanon develops a judiciary similar to that in the US, you will be become work-less,” added Wahhab.
