The mother of a victim of the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion demonstrates outside of Beirut Justice Palace on Jan. 12, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
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Hundreds of protesters, including relatives of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast victims and MPs, gathered outside the Beirut Justice Palace to oppose a Higher Judicial Council meeting to appoint an alternate judge in the stalled investigation into the explosion. The Higher Judicial Council meeting failed due to a lack of quorum as protesters decried the magistrates’ attempt to name a judge who would rule on urgent matters in the investigation, namely the status of detainees who remain in custody since their arrest in the immediate aftermath of the blast. Protesters decried the lack of progress in the investigation during a protest Tuesday after which the judiciary summoned for questioning on charges of rioting and vandalism William Noun and Peter Bou Saab, whose brothers died during their response to the blast as members of the Fire Brigade. Human rights watchdog Amnesty MENA condemned the summons as “absurd.” The port blast probe remains halted amid delays in judicial appointments — for which some of the victims’ relatives blame caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil — that would allow rulings to be made on complaints filed against lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar by political figures he named in the investigation.
A rumored vehicle tax increase on Wednesday overwhelmed OMT and LibanPost branches amid a flood of panic-stricken taxpayers. Officials denied the purported tenfold increase to the mechanic control tax which resulted in a rush of customers causing OMT and LibanPost branches visited by L’Orient Today to run out of tax forms and pause payment processing. The longstanding official lira-to-dollar exchange rate of LL1,500 increased tenfold late last year leading to an increase in certain levies, including customs fees. On Thursday, the Lebanese judiciary filed charges against 15 employees at the Beirut International Airport suspected of embezzlement, whose offenses allegedly include backdating documents to avoid paying taxes at the new rate. A source at the General Directorate of Road Traffic, however, explained that an increase to the vehicle tax requires prior Parliament approval.
Beirut MPs said they made donations to repair a diesel generator that powers the area’s Burj Abi Haidar water station after weeks of fuel shortage-related water outages. MP Waddah Sadek told L’Orient Today that he and MPs Amin Sherri (Hezbollah), Nabil Badr (Independent) and Mohamed Khawaja (Amal) paid maintenance fees directly to the company, bypassing the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment due to fears of embezzlement. Khawaja said that the repair in question "is lengthy and should take a week" at least. The Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Establishment announced earlier this month the complete cut-off of utility water in areas of Beirut due to electricity outages, noting that generators could only cover part of the demand and would prove costly when running for long hours.
Internal Security Forces arrested a father on Thursday after taking his two sons into custody the day before, accusing them of a sectarian verbal altercation with a police patrol overseeing a building demolition in northern Lebanon’s Kfar Qahel. “The owners of the property shouted insults and promised to bring armed people and deploy them to the scene if the police stayed there. They also insulted religious leaders,” the ISF said in a statement. Videos circulating on social media showed what appears to be the three suspects insulting police officers, asking them if they had been sent “from Bkirki [where the highest Maronite authority in the country is located].”
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “A little air from Lebanon at the Monoprix on the Champs-Elysees”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz