BEIRUT: Prominent businessman Bahij Abu Hamzeh, once a close aide of MP Walid Jumblatt, was indicted over a lawsuit filed by the Progressive Socialist Party leader accusing him of embezzlement and breach of trust, a judicial source said.
According to the source, Investigative Judge Ghassan Oueidat issued the indictment against Abu Hamzeh. If found guilty, his sentence would likely range between three months and three years.
But another lawsuit filed by the Safa football team against the prominent Druze businessman was dropped Monday, judicial sources said.
Abu Hamzah remains in custody over Jumblatt's lawsuit, in which he accuses Abu Hamzeh and Hussein Bdeir of selling him a piece of land that did not actually exist.
The PSP leader had earlier said he was the victim of an “organized fraud,” and accused Abu Hamzeh and Bdeir of taking advantage of the fact that he was busy with politics and social obligations in order to dupe him.
Abu Hamzeh was arrested last April after he being charged with breach of trust and embezzling funds of the Safa football team which is sponsored by the PSP chief.
The lawsuit is the culmination of a dramatic deterioration of relations between Jumblatt and Abu Hamzeh, who used to run Jumlatt's real estate endeavors and managed his private properties for more than two decades. Abu Hamzeh’s family has consistently worked for the Jumblatt family over the past century.
A chemical engineer and a Middle East agent for the U.S. pharmaceutical company Upjohn, Abu Hamzeh lived in Paris before moving to Lebanon in 1987 at the request of Jumblatt in order to manage the PSP chief’s companies.
He is also the former head of the Association of Oil Importing Companies and served as the head of Safa’s board of trustees.
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