Al Qard Al Hassan’s case has just reached an important institutional stage. It is no longer confined to political controversies around Hezbollah, international sanctions or the debate on financial channels operating outside the traditional banking system. Interior Minister Ahmad Al Hajjar confirmed on 1 October 2026 that legal proceedings had been initiated at the request of the Minister of Justice to the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation. The Ministry of the Interior now awaits the results of this procedure before determining the measures falling within its own competence.
This development does not mean that a closure decision has been taken. Nor does it mean that an offence has already been established by the courts. The available evidence indicates precisely the opposite: the case is under examination and the interior claims to be waiting for the court’s findings. This distinction is essential in a climate where financial issues related to Hezbollah overlap with the debate on his weapons. The passage through justice now places part of this confrontation on the ground of law, administrative powers and the status of the structures concerned.
A procedure initiated by the Department of Justice
Ahmad Al Hajjar provided the most important clarification before the meeting of the Council of Ministers. When asked about the case, he indicated that he was now following a judicial path. The starting point is a request from the Minister of Justice to the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation. The judicial authorities must therefore examine the elements of the file before the Ministry of the Interior decides on any administrative intervention.
This chronology is important. It shows that the government has not chosen, at this stage, to treat Al Qard Al Hassan by an immediate political decision. The Ministry of the Interior has not announced that it is ready to close the structure on the basis of government instructions. On the contrary, he referred to the results of judicial work. The procedure thus creates a separation between the political will to verify the situation and the decision which may result from it.
The Minister also recalled that his administration’s powers with respect to associations are regulated. The granting of an official receipt is the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior, but this does not mean that the Ministry can automatically take any action without complying with the applicable procedures. This clarification shows the complexity of the file. Before deciding on a possible sanction, the State must determine the legal nature of the structure, the regime to which it is subject and any offences that might be brought against it.
There is no evidence that justice has already reached a conclusion. A distinction must therefore be made between the opening or existence of a judicial review and a conviction. Any presentation of Al Qard Al Hassan as a structure already declared illegal by the courts would go beyond what is available.
Government is avoiding immediate administrative closure
The caution shown by the Ministry of the Interior is not insignificant. The case directly concerns an institution associated with the social and financial environment of Hezbollah. An administrative closure without a sufficiently strong legal basis would immediately provoke political confrontation and could be appealed. The choice of waiting for judicial findings allows the government to move the issue of the relationship of political forces to compliance with the law.
This method also protects administration. If justice establishes the existence of elements to justify intervention, the ministry will be able to build on a stronger institutional basis. If investigations do not lead to such a conclusion, it will be more difficult to justify an exceptional measure. The government seems to be seeking to avoid a decision on Al Qard Al Hassan being interpreted solely as political action directed against Hezbollah.
This caution, however, does not erase the scope of the judicial process. For years, the debate around the structure has been mainly related to its financial role, its relations with the social base of Hezbollah and foreign sanctions. The intervention of Lebanese judicial institutions introduces a different element. The question now becomes what Lebanese law allows, prohibits or requires.
The precise content of the case referred to the court is not detailed in the available sources. It would therefore be risky to list accusations that are not explicitly documented. There is also no evidence at this stage of the length of the proceedings or the nature of the decisions that could be recommended.
The financial dossier is moving forward in parallel with that of arms
The timing, however, gives the case a wider political significance. Ahmad Al Hajjar referred to Al Qard Al Hassan at a time when the Government is also pursuing its policy of concentrating arms in the hands of the State. The Minister recalled that the Council of Ministers had made clear decisions on this point and that they would continue to be followed in the defined frameworks.
Both cases should not be legally confused. The issue of arms is a matter of state sovereignty, security and military authority. The Al Qard Al Hassan file concerns a financial structure and the rules to which it may be submitted. There is no evidence of a single procedure bringing together these two questions.
Their simultaneous progression, however, reveals an evolution of confrontation between the state and Hezbollah-related structures. The issue is no longer limited to the presence of weapons outside the regular forces. It extends to the capacity of official institutions to review financial and organizational activities that operate outside traditional banking mechanisms.
This extension can be much more delicate than it seems. The financial system directly affects the daily lives of people who use these mechanisms for their transactions, guarantees or financial needs. Any possible action must therefore take into account not only its political dimension but also its concrete consequences.
An American sequence that increases the sensitivity of the file
The evolution also comes immediately after the displacement of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and a government delegation to the United States. The US talks focused on reforms, the security situation and Hezbollah issues. At the same time, further behind-the-scenes information indicates US concerns about Iran-related financial institutions in Lebanon.
This concomitance inevitably feeds questions about the existence of external pressure. It does not, however, make it possible to state that the judicial proceedings concerning Al Qard Al Hassan were initiated on the basis of United States investigation. The available sources clearly indicate his institutional path: a request from the Minister of Justice to the Attorney General of the Court of Cassation. They do not provide any evidence that a foreign authority has ordered this.
This distinction will be essential for the government. The more financial cases related to Hezbollah develop in parallel with American demands, the more the executive will have to demonstrate that its decisions are based on Lebanese law and national procedures. Otherwise, each measure can be politically presented as the application of an external agenda.
For Nawaf Salam, the problem is particularly sensitive. His Government was seeking to strengthen State sovereignty and restore its relations with international institutions. But it must at the same time preserve internal cohesion and avoid a confrontation that would shift the institutional debate towards the street.
Legal status becomes the decisive issue
The core of the case should now move to a very concrete question: under what legal regime does Al Qard Al Hassan work and what activities is he allowed to perform? The answer will largely determine the possibilities for action by the State. A structure formed under an association does not necessarily fall under the same control as a bank. But the declared legal nature of an organisation alone is not sufficient to resolve the issue. The real nature of the operations it carries out must also be examined.
The information available does not provide the detailed legal analysis currently submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It is therefore not possible to state what provisions would be at the centre of the examination. The role of justice will be precisely to determine whether the activities identified correspond to the applicable legal framework and whether administrative or criminal intervention is warranted.
The statement of Ahmad Al Hajjar also shows that the Ministry of Interior does not want to anticipate this response. He waits for the results before determining his attitude. This position may seem procedural, but it is politically significant. It avoids turning the ministry into the sole authority for the legality of a complex financial mechanism.
If further action is taken, the basis for such action should be clarified. A possible closure, suspension or restriction could not be presented simply as an extension of the Government’s decision on arms. It would require its own legal basis.
A question directly related to confidence in the financial system
The case comes at a time when Lebanon is trying to rebuild its banking sector. The crisis opened since 2019 has destroyed much of the trust between depositors and traditional establishments. Restrictions on access to deposits, accumulated losses and years of uncertainty have encouraged the development or maintenance of financial mechanisms outside the conventional banking system.
The government is working alongside bank restructuring and addressing the financial divide. It negotiates with the International Monetary Fund and must establish new rules for the sector. In this context, the issue of parallel financial structures takes on a particular dimension. Restoring an official banking system also requires a clear definition of what activities can be carried out outside it and under what control.
But the government must avoid a contradiction. It cannot ask the public to return to banks without restoring confidence in these institutions. The regulation of alternative channels and banking restructuring are therefore two different but interdependent problems. The more fragile the formal system remains, the more useful the parallel mechanisms remain for certain categories of the population.
The answer cannot therefore be exclusively coercive. It must be part of a broader policy of restoring financial institutions, accessing deposits and standardizing payments.
Hezbollah could see an increase in pressure
From a political point of view, the party can hardly completely separate this procedure from the general context. He’s already facing pressure on his arsenal. Negotiations on the South are taking place in an environment where the United States is calling for progress on the arms monopoly. At the same time, the financial channels linked to Iran are receiving increased attention.
The passage of Al Qard Al Hassan before the court can therefore be seen by his base as the opening of a new front. Such a perception obviously does not prove that the files would be coordinated or that they would respond to a single plan. However, it can influence the political reaction of the party.
The government must therefore maintain a strict separation between judicial proceedings and political confrontation. The more the authorities communicate precisely about the powers of each institution, the more they can defend the legal nature of their approach. Conversely, statements presenting the procedure as an instrument to politically weaken Hezbollah could jeopardize this distinction.
Justice thus finds itself with a particularly heavy responsibility. It must work on facts and law in an environment where each decision will be immediately interpreted through the national and regional power relations.
The consequences for users must be anticipated
Another dimension cannot be overlooked. A financial structure is not limited to those responsible. It has users, commitments and ongoing operations. If the procedure were to lead to significant restrictions, the question of the treatment of these relations would immediately become concrete.
Available sources do not provide figures to assess the exact extent of the commitments concerned. They also do not detail the mechanisms that would be provided in the event of an unfavourable decision. It would therefore be impossible to anticipate precisely the consequences for people using the services of the structure.
This uncertainty is an additional reason to avoid rushed announcements. A possible decision should clarify what happens to existing rights and obligations. The aim of State intervention cannot be to create a new category of people unable to gain access to their assets or to settle their commitments, while the country is already trying to emerge from a banking crisis that is precisely characterised by this problem.
The precedent of the banking crisis makes this issue particularly sensitive. Lebanese have already experienced the loss of normal access to their deposits. Any intervention in a parallel financial structure will therefore also be judged by the protection offered to its users.
A test for state authority as well as for the independence of justice
The file of Al Qard Al Hassan has finally become a test on several levels. First, it measures the state’s ability to legally examine a structure associated with one of the country’s most powerful political and military actors. He then tests the government’s ability not to substitute a political decision for judicial work. Finally, he questioned the possibility of regulating parallel financial channels while the official banking system itself remained in the midst of reconstruction.
At this stage, only one thing can be asserted without exceeding the available elements: the judicial procedure is initiated at the request of the Minister of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior awaits its results before taking any decision within its competence. No final closure was announced and no guilt was established in the available evidence.
The follow-up will therefore depend less on political statements than on the content of the judicial file. If violations are established, the State will have to decide how to treat them while protecting the rights of the persons concerned. If they are not, the lack of foundation will also have to be recognized. In both cases, the case has already produced a significant change: the debate on financial structures related to Hezbollah has now entered Lebanese judicial institutions.
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