The scandal of defective fuel sold in Lebanon by the Algerian state-owned oil company Sonatrach has been widely commented on social media. At the heart of scandal are the remarks made by Lebanese MP Paula Yacoubian on May 7, 2020, at a press conference.
“The defective fuel case is a huge scandal, documented by numerous reports,” said the former Lebanese MP, denouncing parties that “are starting to work to bury it“.
“Why is the contract with Sonatrach secret?“, said the Lebanese MP. “Petroleum waste is being sent to Lebanon and the investigation into it must include the company which operates the central ships” she added.
For Paula Yacoubian, the contract is nothing more than “a matter between a mafia and another mafia” referring to both the Lebanese authorities and the Algerian authorities.
At the heart of this fuel scandal, there is this Algerian apparatchik Farid Bedjaoui, whose name is already cited in several corruption files of the Algerian oil group, notably in the Sonatrach-Saipem scandal.
“He is married to a Lebanese woman. We know how this approach obeys to various considerations, notably ethnic, and imagine that Noureddine Farid Bedjaoui has exceeded all these considerations. He was naturalized Lebanese in 2018 despite the lawsuits against him for hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Sonatrach case” concluded the MP while demanding a serious investigation from the Lebanese judiciary.