After a suspension of more than a year, the Lebanese investigation into the devastating explosion at the port of Beirut resumed on Monday, despite continued enormous political pressure, and two security officials have been charged.
On August 4, 2020, hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the port without precautions by the authorities’ own admission, exploded. Result: more than 200 dead and 6,500 injured in addition to the destruction and the national trauma. The exact causes of this huge explosion are still unknown, as is the identity of those responsible, in a country where impunity very often reigns. It has been blamed by a large part of the population on the corruption and negligence of the ruling class, also accused by the families of the victims and NGOs of torpedoing the investigation to avoid indictments.
Battle against impunity
To everyone’s surprise, Judge Tarek Bitar, against whom a large part of the political class has rallied, “decided to resume the investigationand to indict two senior security officials, a judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity. They are the director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, close to the powerful armed movement of Hezbollah, and the head of State Security, Tony Saliba, close to ex-president Michel Aoun whose mandate expired three months ago.
“Judge Bitar launched a battle against the policy of impunity“, explained to AFP Nizar Saghié, director of the NGO Legal Agenda. “The confrontation will be tough“, he added, explaining to expect “political interference and pressureto prevent him from continuing his work again. The judicial official did not immediately specify why Abbas Ibrahim and Tony Saliba and six other people, including political and judicial figures, are charged.
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But before the suspension of the investigation in December 2021, the magistrate had wanted to question the two men, suspected like other political and security officials of having been aware of the presence of ammonium nitrate but of not have taken no action.
According to the judicial official, Judge Bitar at the same time ordered the release of five people, including the former director of Customs Chafic Merhi, all arrested since the tragedy without trial. The magistrate decided to resume the investigation after an attempt by the authorities in recent months to appoint a substitute judge on their pay to bypass him. But she came up short.
Refusal of an international investigation
Before the suspension of the investigation, Tarek Bitar had tried to initiate proceedings against a former Prime Minister, four former ministers and several security officials. But he was prevented from carrying out his work because of some 40 lawsuits launched against him by politicians, including those he wanted to interview, and by a campaign led by Hezbollah, the dominant political force in Lebanon which accuses him of bias.
In October 2021, Hezbollah and its ally, the Shiite Amal movement, organized a demonstration to demand his replacement, which degenerated, killing seven people. The authorities refused an international investigation, demanded in particular by the relatives of the victims and human rights organizations. The families of the victims have been fighting for more than two years incessantly to demand justice.
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“It was time for Judge Bitar to resume his work (..) They are all involved in the port explosion and they are afraid of the truth“, said to AFP in allusion to the Lebanese leaders Tatiana Hasrouty, whose father was killed in the collapse of the silos of the port.
The announcement of the resumption of the investigation comes a week after a visit by two French magistrates to Beirut who had met Mr. Bitar. An investigation was opened in France, two French people appearing among the dead and 93 among the injured.
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