Beirut: Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb confronted several new challenges on Friday after the Financial Prosecutor, Judge Ali Ebrahim, indicted three high-level officials at the state-owned Ogero telecommunications company in the ongoing internet scandal, and after the MTV television chairman and CEO, Michel Gabriel Al Murr, accused him of lying.

Harb, who famously condemned General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi in 2013 and threatened to take him to court after the latter allegedly protected a presumed assassin (nothing happened on that front since that time), spent three hours on Thursday evening on the LBC Kalam Al NAS talk show with Marcel Ganem to display his dazzling perspectives. It was unclear whether he succeeded to salvage the ongoing Ogero scandal.

In fact, despite the broadly watched television programme that was a rare exercise in spin, Judge Ebrahim did not waste much time and indicted three officials over “negligence that led to squandering public funds and evading taxes by allowing some people to set up unlicensed internet in the country”. He also referred the case to Beirut’s First Investigative Judge Gassan Oueidat, a procedure that was important because the indictment meant that a trial would now be held very soon, especially after Minister Harb granted the judiciary permission to pursue Ogero director-general Abdul Moneim Yousif (and two other high-ranking officials) even if the latter was out of the country.

The three individuals are linked to the country’s illegal internet networks scandal and, in addition to Yousuf, included IT director Toufic Chebaro and internet Division director Galeb Smaira.

For their part, State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud, who has been seeking to question Yousuf, Chebaro and Smaira, and Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Rami Abdullah, who extended the deadline for Yousuf to testify in the case, received lukewarm support from the minister. Abdullah gave Yousuf until May 23 to appear in court although few believed that the fugitive would return to Beirut from France any time soon.

On Thursday evening, Harb denied that Yousuf had fled the country and claimed that the accused was not required to attend the session because the telecoms minister had not given the judiciary permission to question him, though he seems to have changed his mind after fresh revelations were revealed about Yousuf’s Paris heart attack.

Indeed, Yousuf apparently produced a medical report from a physician, posted on the LBC webpage with Harb’s authorisation, although it contained serious irregularities.

“Boutros Harb’s comments are suspicious,” asserted the MTV television chairman and CEO Al Murr, because the medical report was predated by five days; not issued by the cardiologist who performed the operation; provided a blank six-month rest prescription (if necessary); and hand-delivered it to Yousuf’s daughter. The extensive Parisian leave may create additional problems although few contemplated which direction that may go.

Interestingly, Al Murr spoke for over 11 minutes on top of Friday evening’s prime news bulletin — an eternity in airtime — to refute Harb and displayed several documents, including a report attributed to the Lebanese Army, which raised serious questions about the minister’s comments on the illegal internet networks. He affirmed that Harb was determined to cover up the Ogero internet scandal for political reasons and that the minister’s bravura to expose four illegal internet stations in the mountainous regions of Al Dinniyyah, Ayun Al Siman, Faqra and Zaarur, was pure politics aimed at muzzling the station and its owners. In addition to MTV — the highest-ranking television network throughout the Arab World that was shut down by Syrian forces in 2002 but resumed broadcasts in 2009 — the Al-Murr family owned a major resort at Zaarur where one of these internet facilities were apparently located.

To date, eight individuals were arrested and several others were charged in absentia. On Thursday, Harb repeated the mantra that Israel was using these set-ups to spy on Lebanon although the Lebanese Army — presumably the primary target — remained silent on the matter. Illegal providers are accused of buying bandwidth from Turkey and Israel and selling it in Lebanon below official rates, though preliminary investigations revealed that Yousuf and others were part of the illegal activities that netted substantial returns and denied the State sorely needed revenues.

Lebanon earns between $1.2 billion (Dh4.41 billion) and 1.5 billion each year through the Ministry of Telecommunications monopoly even if internet services rank among the slowest and most expensive in the world.