00:00Attorney-at-law for business couple Dominic and Genevieve Hadid and star Sabga, Genevieve's
00:06maternal aunt Farah Salrawi, says his clients are upstanding citizens.
00:12Most people know Mr. Hadid as a well-recognized entrepreneur.
00:17He was recognized by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year.
00:21His wife is somebody who is engaged in a lot of charitable work, engaged in society for
00:28many, many years, particularly involved in a very distinguished entity called the Syrian
00:33Lebanese Women's Association.
00:35She is now nearly 70 years old.
00:38She lives on her own.
00:40She is a woman of very modest means.
00:43She makes some of the best cheese on God's earth.
00:46Folks, if you have not had the Arabic cheese, which we call shanklish or arish, then you're
00:52missing out.
00:53Al-Rawi's public defense comes amid an audio recording of the two women in
00:58which it is alleged that star Sabga made threatening remarks and racial slurs against the Prime
01:04Minister and members of her cabinet.
01:07While Al-Rawi said his clients were happy to be out of prison, set free and back to normal
01:12lives, when quizzed by journalists, he chose not to respond to the racial slurs.
01:18I prefer not to descend into that because there are a whole basket of issues inside of that.
01:25I have my own views.
01:26I'm not permitted as an attorney to speak other than on the law for my clients.
01:31I'm an officer of the court, so I don't want to distract the court from the views.
01:36As a human being, I've looked at the comments online.
01:40The comments, I think, speak volumes.
01:43There are different views on it.
01:44And suffice it to say, democracy is alive and well in our country.
01:49He said his clients were fully cooperative with police, but questioned how two were fully released
01:54and one remains under house arrest.
01:56We are quite simply very eager to have this matter dealt with.
02:02We represent to the nation that our clients are persons of upright standing, proper character,
02:09that they have plainly and simply said that they are not guilty of this matter.
02:15Al-Rawi says his request for full disclosure has not been complied with and as such an application
02:21has been made before the court.
02:23We have asked for the disclosure, and no doubt at some point that will be considered by the
02:28court.
02:28The Minister of Homeland Security has indicated in the Star Sabga matter that he would take
02:34from last Friday 14 days to have certain discussions.
02:39He has indicated that he needs to have discussions with foreign entities in relation to intelligence
02:46sharing.
02:47That's a very significant issue.
02:49The legal team has, however, been privy to 13 separate short audio clips, which are contained
02:58in the viral 15-minute audio recording between Star and Genevieve.
03:03In those conversations, nothing that the Minister of Homeland Security stated in writing to be
03:12the words of Genevieve Hadid or Dominic Hadid.
03:16Al-Rawi denies his legal team is the source of any leak as he says they were never privy
03:22to the entire audio in any event.
03:25Ravishit Moury, Rupnarein, TV6 News.
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