Governing property, making the modern state - PSI424

Da’ud ‘Abbada and Jurji Qabawat then appealed to Istanbul itself, where years
later the legal irregularity would be recognized but long after they had spent their
time in jail and paid the fines imposed. 40 From the procès-verbal it is clear that
payment for office was commonplace.
Equally there is little doubt that the investigators were doing what they could
to indict Da’ud ‘Abbada and to protect Salim Bey from prosecution. The account
of the British Vice-Consul indicates that this fact was not lost on everyone in
Damascus:
… two public prosecutions of functionaries for receiving bribes and for malversation
of office have lately taken place here, and have excited much wholesome
interest in both the Official and the public mind.
The Administrative Council of the Vilayet being the competent tribunal in
such cases to pronounce sentence after the preliminary investigation by the Court
of First Instance of the Liwa, the Governor General in his quality of President
of the Council has taken a prominent and dominant part in the framing of the
sentences.
In the one case, the accused, the late Caimakam of the Jebel Ajloon in the
Mutsariflik of the Hauran, a renegade jew, together with the cashier of the
district, a Christian, were charged with receiving bribes for appointments to posts
of Mudirs and members of Medjlisses, and have been sentenced to three years incarceration
and to a fine of £600 being double the amount of bribes received, and
to the payment also of 8,000 piastres, expenses of a Commission of preliminary
investigation sent to the Jebel Ajloon.
The parties have appealed against the sentence to Constantinople but having
been imprisoned to enforce payment of costs have been enlarged on bail by invoking
the Constitution of Midhat Pasha against the irregularities of procedure of
the preliminary investigation. The appeal to Constantinople and the unfavourable
comments of the public to the disparagement of the Governor General on the
case, are based upon the allegation of the accused and which are said to have
been amply substantiated by the investigations and evidence that the bribes were
encashed for and paid to the Chief Executive of the Hauran, namely the Mutsarif,
a Moslem notable, nominee of the Governor General, and who had hitherto
enjoyed a not too high character for probity.
From all I can learn I fear there is little doubt as to the culpability of this latter.
The Official in question resigned last Autumn when the accusations first came to
be made on the ground of alleged ill-health, and has since been employed by the
Vali in investigating charges of venality and malversation in various parts of the
Vilayet…
His Highness Midhat Pasha is thus accused of screening his protégé and was
obliged to exercise much and arbitrary pressure upon some of the members of the
Court to get them to sign the sentence against the renegade jew and the Christian;
the members at first declining to sign it unless the real culprit was also brought to
justice. 41
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