Beirut- Asharq Al-Awsat

President Michel Aoun said on Friday that crime rates in Lebanon have remarkably decreased in 2018 in comparison with previous years, lauding efforts exerted by the army and security forces to consecrate security in the country.

During a Friday meeting with a delegation of the Higher Judiciary Council headed by Judge Jean Fahed at the Baabda palace, Aoun stressed that "political disputes continue to hinder the formation of the new government", calling on all parties concerned to shoulder national responsibility and facilitate the process of the government formation.

"We have maintained the security and stability of Lebanon in times of heated war... Accordingly, it is not permissible to waste what has been achieved through cold internal wars," Aoun insisted.

Aoun also urged cooperation between the judiciary and the security services, highlighting the need for speeding up the issuance of verdicts.

He said the Penal Code needs fundamental amendments, which will be discussed at the conference to be called forth by the President after the formation of the new government.

The head of the Supreme Judicial Council handed the President a report on the current status of the judiciary and the work of 524 judges.

The report, which outlined the work of Lebanon’s 524 judges, found that from September 2017 to August 2018, the judiciary had examined 170,572 of the 198,863 legal claims and suits filed over the year - or about 86 percent.

Fahed also briefed the president on the status of a special council that had been formed to study court statistics in order to identify “faults that could affect the functioning of any judicial department” and propose solutions to address them.

The president expressed his personal interest in the council’s work and called on the judiciary to preserve impartiality and objectivity in Lebanon's courts and judges.