New TV”s Eid rleased on bail after turning herself in
New Television journalist Ghada Eid was released on bail Monday after turning herself in to the Lebanese authorities to face charges of slander.
After surrendering, Eid was taken in handcuffs to the office of investigating Judge Raffoul Boustani in Mount Lebanon for questioning. She was released within hours after paying six million Lebanese pounds in bail.
Eid, who presents the weekly television program “Al-Fasad,” Arabic for “corruption,” is charged with slandering Judge Shaheed Salameh. She had spent several weeks evading arrest and had previously managed to sneak past police camped outside New Television studios in Beirut’s Wata al-Msaitbeh neighborhood.
Salameh has accused Eid of slander during an episode of her show when she discussed the 2008 assassination of Phalange Party official Nasri Marouni in 2008. Marouni, who is Eid’s cousin, was fatally shot by unidentified gunmen near the party’s headquarters in the Bekaa town of Zahle.
Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan has also accused Eid of slander. The MP spoke on Eid’s television show in June and accused her of committing “political assassination” against him and of fabricating stories about his involvement in corruption during Lebanon’s June 7 parliamentary elections.
The angry verbal exchange was aired on television channels throughout the Middle East, with a YouTube video clip of the altercation attracting over 31,500 viewers. Eid has responded to the charges by filing a lawsuit against Kanaan.