Summoned but not notified, Oueidat didn't appear before Judge Bitar

The former public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, did not appear at the hearing scheduled for Friday before the investigating judge at the Court of Justice, Tarek Bitar, who had summoned him as part of his investigation into the double explosion at the Beirut Port on Aug. 4, 2020.

Ghassan Oueidat was not notified of the hearing by the judicial police and had been summoned by Judge Bitar through the Prosecutor's Office, according to L'Orient-Le Jour, which learned this from a high-ranking judicial source. Judge Bitar has scheduled a new hearing to question Oueidat on July 21, in 10 days, without it being known if the former prosecutor will be officially notified or if he will agree to appear or to be represented, according to this source.

The former public prosecutor had forbidden, in January 2023, the prosecutor's office and the judicial police from cooperating with Judge Bitar regarding the port investigation. This ban was lifted on March 10, 2025, by the new public prosecutor, Jamal Hajjar, after 26 months of obstruction.

On July 4, it was the MP from the Shiite Amal movement and former minister, Ghazi Zeaiter, who did not appear at his hearing but was represented by his lawyer, Samer al-Hajj. A new session has been scheduled for Zeaiter on July 18.

On Aug. 4, 2020, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history devastated much of the Lebanese capital, leaving more than 220 dead and 6,500 injured. The blast was caused by a fire in a port warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate were stored without precaution, despite repeated warnings to top authorities, who were accused of negligence.

The Association of Families of the Victims of the Port of Beirut criticized Ghassan Oueidat's candidacy for the Constitutional Council in a statement issued earlier in July. They accused him of "flagrantly violating the law and abusing the authority entrusted to him." "Is it reasonable for a person who did not respect the laws he was supposed to enforce to examine the constitutionality of the laws?" the victims' families asked.

In early February, Bitar resumed his hearings after a nearly three-year interruption, due to repeated legal challenges by implicated political officials, who aimed to remove his control over the case that was entrusted to him in 2021.