Relatives of those killed in the Beirut explosion continued their protest on Friday for the second day in a row, after a court decided to dismiss an investigative judge in the blast that rocked the capital in August.
About 70 protesters gathered in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut on Friday, as some burned tires to block roads, and others raised pictures of their deceased relatives.
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Judge Fadi Sawan filed charges of negligence in December against three former ministers and the caretaker prime minister, but the four officials refused to question them as suspects and accused the judge of exceeding his powers.
The Court of Cassation excluded Sawan from the investigation at the request of two former ministers who were accused.
A copy of the court’s decision cited “legitimate suspicion” of Sawan’s neutrality because his home was damaged in the explosion that destroyed most neighborhoods of the capital.
For his part, Muhannad Al-Hajj Ali, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Institute, said: “No one in the political class wants such an investigation.”
He added that this would open the way to great trouble, and “these politicians have grown accustomed to escaping major crimes since the Lebanese civil war … the judiciary is one of the most unreliable institutions in the republic.”
Before the investigation can resume, the Ministry of Justice will have to appoint a new judge to oversee it, and the new judge will also need the approval of the Supreme Judicial Council, which will set the entire process back in time.
Some see the judge’s dismissal as a blow to the case, but Lebanese analyst Sarkis Naoum does not believe that the local investigation will lead to any real results.
Noam said, “Our country has become a failed state, which means failed security organizations, failed institutions, a failed judiciary, and failure in everything. Therefore, I never thought that Judge Sawan would reach anything.”
Documents seen by “Reuters” showed that the president and prime minister received warnings more than two weeks before the explosion stating that the ammonium nitrate, which had been insecurely stored for years, could destroy the capital if it exploded.
The authorities are currently holding about 25 accused pending investigation, including the head of the Beirut port and the customs official, but they have not held any prominent politicians accountable so far.
Naoum said that those currently being held were not the main ones responsible for the explosion.
Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Regional Office at Amnesty International, ruled out the investigation’s commitment to impartiality in light of the appointment of the investigative judge by the executive authority.
And 200 people died in the August 4 blast, when a huge amount of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in the capital’s port for years exploded unsafe. The explosion also wounded thousands and destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Source: Reuters
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