Another legal attack targets port probe head Judge Tarek Bitar

BEIRUT — The “Committee of the martyrs of the Beirut port explosion,” a group considered to be close to Hezbollah and the Amal Movement and which broke away in October from the “families of the victims of the explosion” group, on Tuesday presented the Court of Cassation with a request to remove the head of the investigation into the 2020 blast, Judge Tarek Bitar.

Here’s what we know:

    • This group was formed after a video circulated last October showing Ibrahim Hoteit, who had been a spokesperson for some of the blast victims’ families, criticizing Bitar’s leadership of the probe and demanding his dismissal. At the time of its release, many questioned if the footage of Hoteit had been shot under duress.

    • Bitar has had his hands tied since last December due to a similar appeal presented by Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hassan Khalil, both MPs and former ministers representing Amal, who are implicated in the case. The magistrate in charge of studying this request, Naji Eid, president of the first chamber of the Court of Cassation, is also the subject of an appeal for state liability presented by the same former ministers.

    • Furthermore, the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation, competent to rule on complaints against Bitar, cannot do so because of the loss of quorum required for its meeting after the recent retirement of one of its members.

    • Last December, the committee represented by Hoteit lodged an appeal for legitimate suspicion against the investigating judge with the sixth criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation, chaired by Randa Kfoury, who has not yet ruled on the matter.