BEIRUT — The UK’s High Court of Justice in London issued a court order in response to a lawsuit filed by the Beirut Bar Association compelling Savaro Ltd., the firm suspected of importing the ammonium nitrate that detonated in the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion, to reveal its owners, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • The BBA said that the ruling gives Savaro an unspecified “deadline” by which it must “reveal its ultimate beneficial owner.” The decision comes 10 months after the civil suit was filed on Aug. 2, 2021, with the aim of forcing Savaro to “repair the damage caused, especially since it abandoned these dangerous products in November 2013 without worrying about the conditions of their storage.”

    • The bar association also prevented the dissolution of Savaro in Jan. 2021, inciting comments from British lawmakers on company ownership disclosure. The company’s listed owner told Reuters she was acting as an agent on behalf of someone whose identity she cannot disclose. An OCCRP investigation into the company said that the “company’s true shareholders are hidden behind offshore nominee directors and shareholders.”

    • A source close to the case had told L’Orient Today that Savaro Ltd. had signed a purchasing contract for the ammonium nitrate from a Georgian company in 2013.