President Michel Aoun delivers an address in August 2020. (Credit: Dalati & Nohra)
BEIRUT — Almost a year after the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion, President Michel Aoun expressed his “absolute readiness” to testify about the blast if called on by the investigating judge.
Here’s what we know:
• According to a statement from the presidency, Aoun told Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat during a meeting about separate judicial matters that he is ready to testify about the explosion if needed, saying that “no one is above justice no matter how high up” and that “justice is achieved by the competent judiciary.”
• Reuters previously reported that Aoun had been warned in July about the ammonium nitrate that detonated at the port a month later.
• Almost a year after the blast, Aoun has yet to meet officially with the families of the victims of the explosion, which killed more than 200 people and wounded thousands of others.
• The lead investigator into the blast, Judge Tarek Bitar, is awaiting Parliament’s decision on whether it will lift legal immunity from former Finance Minister MP Ali Hassan Khalil, MP Ghazi Zeaiter and former Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who are currently MPs. This could pave the way for him to initiate legal proceedings against them.
• Bitar has also run up against red tape in his requests to question the head of General Security, Abbas Ibrahiim, and the director-general of State Security, Tony Saliba.