Beirut port and the silos after the August 4 blast. (Credit: AFP / File photo)
Tarek Bitar, the investigating judge at the Court of Justice whose investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion at the Beirut port has been suspended for more than a year because of legal actions launched against him by political figures, announced on Monday that he is retaking control of the investigation.
Sources at the Beirut Justice Palace added that in doing so the judge has initiated proceedings against eight additional people and decided to release five detainees implicated in the investigation.
The decision to relaunch the investigation, announced by Bitar to L'Orient-Le Jour, was taken "on the basis of legal studies carried out for a month to break the deadlock in which multiple judicial appeals have placed the investigation."
Bitar explained that he decided to seek ways to recover control of the investigation after noting the total impasse in the processing of the legal actions against him.
Sources at the Beirut Justice Palace meanwhile said that Bitar has decided to release five people detained in the investigation: namely, the former director of customs Chafic Merhi (Badri Daher's predecessor); Ahmad Rajab, a Syrian worker who had carried out welding during maintenance work on the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored; Selim Chebli, the contractor responsible for supervising the work; Sami Hussein, director of operations at the port; and Michel Nahoul, project manager at the port.
The same sources said that Bitar has initiated proceedings against eight other people, including head of General Security Abbas Ibrahim and head of State Security Tony Saliba.
Following the announcement, caretaker Justice Minister Henry Khoury said that he referred a copy of excerpts from Bitar's decision that "the media is circulating" to the Higher Judicial Council for perusal, adding that "nothing can influence the course of this file and the proper course of justice, especially in terms of the necessity of maintaining the confidentiality of the investigation."
The investigation had been suspended for 13 months due to the many appeals made against Judge Bitar's leadership of the probe by political officials summoned in the investigation, including Amal MPs Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter, as well as former Public Works Minister Youssef Fenianos, who close to the Marada party. An investigation into the Aug. 4, 2o20 blast has also been opened in France, as two Frenchmen were among its victims.
The explosion was caused by a fire in warehouse No. 12 at the Beirut port, where several thousand tons of ammonium nitrate, an explosive also used as fertilizer, were stored without precautionary measures since 2013.
