A truck burns at the site of a fuel tanker explosion in the village of Tleil on Aug. 15. Yesterday, three men were charged in connection to the lethal blast. (Credit: Fathi al-Masri/AFP)
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Three people were criminally charged yesterday in connection with the deadly Aug. 15 explosion in Tleil, Akkar. The Military Court’s government commissioner Judge Fadi Akiki charged two defendants with storing explosive material in an unsafe manner and endangering others. As a result, he said, 31 people were killed. One of the defendants, George Ibrahim, is the owner of the land on which the fuel was stored; the other, Ali Sobhi Faraj, who was previously arrested for fuel smuggling and remains in prison, was allegedly the owner of the fuel. The third defendant, Gergi Elias Ibrahim, is accused of igniting the fire that caused the explosion. If convicted, all three men could face sentences of hard labor, with Gergi Elias Ibrahim facing a potential life sentence in prison, according to the NNA. Akiki referred the defendants to the first acting investigative judge at the military court, Fadi Sawwan.
The judge investigating the deadly Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion has ordered security forces to ensure that Hassan Diab appears for questioning on Sept. 20, after the caretaker premier failed to appear for his scheduled interrogation yesterday. Judge Tarek Bitar issued an “enforceable summons” against Diab. While the exact reasons for the interrogation remain unknown, Diab had knowledge of the ammonium nitrate stored at the port prior to the explosion. Last December, Diab was among a handful of top officials charged with criminal negligence by Bitar’s predecessor, Fadi Sawwan, who was subsequently removed from the case.
Najib Mikati left Baabda after his 13th meeting with Michel Aoun regarding cabinet formation without reaching an agreement. The prime minister-designate did not give any statement as he departed yesterday afternoon, while local media speculated about the status of negotiations over the proposed 24-member cabinet. It has been one month since Mikati was designated premier. He said previously that there would be no specific time limit on his cabinet formation efforts, but added that the period is not open-ended either. Mikati’s predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down from the prime minister-designate role after failing to reach an agreement on the government lineup in nine months of negotiations.
The Emirates National Oil Company won a tender to swap an initial 84,000 tons of fuel exported from Iraq to Lebanon for fuel compatible with Lebanese power plants, the Energy Ministry announced yesterday. The swap will entail replacing Iraqi high-sulfur fuel oil, which Lebanese power plants cannot use, with heavy Grade B fuel oil and gas oil. The first shipment of fuel should arrive in Lebanon around September 17–19, the Energy Ministry said in a statement.