“My government did this,” reads writing on a low wall in front of the ruins of the Beirut port. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A delegation from the families of the port employees detained in relation to the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion on Wednesday demanded in a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati “that the imprisoned be placed under house arrest until the conflicts between politicians and judges end.”
Here’s what we know:
• Maud Koraytem, wife of the former Beirut port director Hassan Koraytem, said “our people were imprisoned and they do not know what mistake they committed,” even though they “were only investigated twice by judges Fadi Sawwan and Tarek Bitar.”
• Bitar took over leadership of the investigation into the blast after his predecessor Sawwan was removed from the case in early 2021.
• Gabi Fares, who is related to Beirut’s customs authority director, Hanna Fares, addressed Mikati on behalf of the delegation, saying the families know that the prime minister, and his ministers promised “not to interfere in the work of the judiciary in the file of the port explosion,” but they didn’t promise “to remain neutral or silent about the citizens subjected to injustices.”
• Fares appealed to Mikati to take action on the detainees’ cases, saying that “the arrested employees, or rather those who became imprisoned in prisons for nearly 500 days for the sole reason that they were not martyred during the blast, have become victims of confusion, political and judicial struggles, and stalling in investigations.”
• At least 15 port employees and contractors remain in detention in relation to the Aug. 4 blast out of 25 initially arrested in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.