Families of victims of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion on Saturday called on MPs not to move the probe into the blast to the Supreme Council. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Sixteen months to the day from the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion, gathered outside the port and called on parliamentarians not to refer the investigation into the devastating blast to the rarely used Supreme Council for trying presidents and ministers.
Here is what we know:
• The Association of Families of Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion gathered Saturday for their monthly vigil near the port, saying that MPs should not attend any Parliament session that would seek to move parts of the investigation under the purview of the Supreme Council.
• In a fiery statement, the Association said that any MP who attends such a session or votes to move the case would be “an enemy to us, an enemy of our cause, and a murderer of our victims.”
• “Enough injustice and suspicious games aimed at disrupting the work of the judiciary,” the group added.
• PM Najib Mikati on Friday voiced his support for moving components of Judge Tarek Bitar’s case to the Supreme Council, a body consisting of judges and MPs that has very rarely taken up indictments of former ministers. Parliament can vote to charge former ministers Ghazi Zeaiter, Nouhad Machnouk and Ali Hassan Khalil before the Supreme Council, which could strip Judge Tarek Bitar of jurisdiction over the three MPs.
• Mikati’s cabinet has not met since Oct. 12 due to a political row over Bitar’s investigation, with Hezbollah and Amal calling for the judge to be removed from his case.
• L’Orient-Le Jour reported last week that President Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement, headed by his son-in-law Gebran Bassil, were negotiating with Speaker Nabih Berri a behind-the-scenes package deal for the Supreme Council to be convened, helping revive Mikati’s cabinet, in return for the Constitutional Council to accept the FPM’s appeal against amendments to the electoral law for the 2022 parliamentary elections.