
Portraits of the victims of the Aug. 4, 2020 double explosion hang in front of Beirut port, June 4, 2021. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient-Le Jour)
A week after the election of President Joseph Aoun, the investigative judge at the Court of Justice, Tarek Bitar, in charge of the investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port explosion, took decisive action on Thursday to continue his investigations: He has initiated proceedings against 12 security officials and port officials he has summoned for hearings scheduled between Feb. 7 and the end of next month.
The individuals implicated are the former head of army intelligence, Edmond Fadel, Marwan Eid, the former head of port intelligence, Assaad Toufeily and Gracia Azzi, respectively former president and member of the Higher Customs Council, Raymond Khoury, current director-general of customs, Adel Francis, customs officer, Najm Ahmadiyeh, Mounah Sawaya, Mohammad Hassan Moukalled, officers from General Security, Mohammad Ahmad Kassabiyeh, Marwan Kaake and Rabih Srour, former port officials.
Judge Bitar acted through civilian ushers. The judicial police are indeed forbidden to cooperate with him, due to directives from the former Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oueidat, which his successor Jamal Hajjar refuses to remove unless the investigative judge limits his examination to the responsibility of officials, excluding the politicians involved: A condition that the investigative judge firmly rejects, emphasizing the unity of the port case.
According to our information, the investigative judge should later establish new lists of implicated persons, including political leaders, for hearings spread out until next April.
In this way, Bitar will have given the right of defense to the concerned officials, a source from the Justice Palace indicated to L’Orient-Le Jour, indicating that a refusal from them to appear would not hinder the issuance of the indictment after proceeding with public posting of notifications.
At all costs
Shortly before the announcements of the summonses, the Committee of the Gathering of Victims and Injured of the Beirut Port Explosion, led by Ibrahim Hoteit, a brother of a victim, went to Judge Hajjar to hand over documents “incriminating people who have not been summoned.”
With other relatives of Shiite victims, Hoteit has been separated, for about three years, from the original committee formed by many families of victims with whom he previously spoke as one. His collective is perceived as having been created under pressure and intimidation allegedly exercised by Hezbollah and the Amal movement, of which two leaders are implicated by Judge Bitar. Hoteit constantly demands the removal of the latter, accusing him of politicizing the investigation, while denying having been threatened.
After his meeting with Judge Hajjar, the head of the controversial collective questioned "why the investigative judge has not yet summoned the former director of customs, Raymond Khoury." However, the latter was already on the list of people summoned, released shortly after. In a statement, Hoteit went as far as calling Judge Bitar a “criminal,” whose place is “in prison rather than at his desk,” accusing him of “delaying the truth and justice due to his selective approach and disrespect for the unity of criteria in the summonses.”
Since taking charge of the case, the investigative judge has constantly faced numerous obstacles posed by the political-judicial class, making it very difficult for him to advance the investigation. The war between Israel and Hezbollah, from October 2023 to November 2024, has not facilitated his task either, according to a source from the Justice Palace. The magistrate has always shown determination to complete his investigations, the source added, noting that he has always dismissed security and political considerations. For this source, it is neither the insistence of the new President Joseph Aoun for the independence of the judiciary nor the call of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to finalize the investigation that makes Tarek Bitar want to succeed at all costs.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour.