Damage to the office of lawyer Sakher El Hachem and Judge Peter Germanos.
BEIRUT — An explosion at the office of lawyer Sakher El Hachem and Judge Peter Germanos in Furn al-Shubbak Monday caused extensive damage but no injuries.
The cause of the explosion remains unknown.
Some speculated that it could have been intentional and politically motivated because of Hachem’s role in the Beirut port blast investigation.
Hachem represents former head of Beirut port Hassan Koraytem who was arrested in August for his role in the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion. Koraytem remains in custody.
Germanos is a former government commissioner to the Military Tribunal who stepped down in February 2020, citing family reasons. In 2019, the Judicial Inspection Authority had recommended that Germanos and another senior judge be suspended as part of a corruption probe.
He had previously been involved in high profile cases, including the trial of former internal security forces official Suzan Hajj Hobeiche for allegedly framing the actor Ziad Itani on charges of spying for Israel.
When contacted on Monday evening, Germanos told L’Orient Today that he did not know what caused the explosion.
An Internal Security Forces spokesperson also said no information was available as yet on the blast’s cause.
Hachem told Al Jadeed TV, “I was sitting at my desk writing and the explosion came in a very very violent way.”
While the blast caused extensive damage, the lawyer was unharmed.
“God willing it wasn’t any kind of message and was natural; I would prefer that a million times,” Hachem said, indicating that he hoped the cause of the blast was accidental rather than nefarious.