Caretaker Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, October 2021. (Credit: Anwar AMRO/AFP)
BEIRUT — On Tuesday, 15 ambassadors from countries that signed the joint statement on the Beirut Port explosion at the UN Human Rights Council urged Lebanese authorities to speed up judicial investigations and expressed their concern about their "ongoing obstruction."
The blast that ravaged Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020, killed over 220 people, wounded more than 6,500 and destroyed swaths of the capital.
According to a communique published by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Twitter, the ambassadors met with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and delivered their message. Bou Habib affirmed that the caretaker government is "committed to revealing the circumstances surrounding the Beirut Port explosion."
Bou Habib told the ambassadors that "this responsibility falls on the Lebanese Judiciary, in accordance with the laws and principles that govern the work of the judiciary under the principle of separation of powers."
Finally, Bou Habib said he hoped "matters will take their proper course, whether it is at the level of the judicial or constitutional institutions of the state."
Investigations related to the Beirut Port Explosion have been frozen since last February due to interference from politicians and judges. As part of the investigations, several high-ranking Lebanese officials were prosecuted by Judge Tarek Bitar but refused to appear in court.
Several judicial sources told L'Orient-Le Jour on Thursday that Judge Bitar plans to continue his investigation into the Beirut port explosion at all costs.