Smoke rises above the port of Beirut after part of the wheat silos collapsed, on Aug. 4, 2022. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Former public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ghassan Oueidat refused on Thursday to be notified of a hearing scheduled by investigative judge at the Court of Justice Tarek Bitar for questioning on Monday as a suspect in the case of the double explosion at Beirut's port, which occurred on Aug. 4, 2020.
In practice, the judicial police, acting on instructions from the head of the Court of Cassation, public prosecutor's office Jamal Hajjar, went on Thursday to Shehim — the former magistrate’s hometown and place of residence in the Chouf — to deliver his summons, a source at the Palace of Justice told L’Orient-Le Jour.
Oueidat read the notification without signing it and sent a letter to Bitar through the police officer, in which he asserts that the judge has neither “legitimacy” nor “jurisdiction” to question him. To justify his refusal, Oueidat relied on Article 354 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which he interprets as requiring, among other things, that a magistrate accused of a misdemeanor or felony must be tried before a judicial body designated ad hoc.
Oueidat had already been summoned on July 11 by Bitar, but did not attend the hearing as the judicial police had not duly notified him.
In January 2023, the former head of the public prosecutor’s office initiated legal proceedings against Bitar for “usurpation of authority” and “rebellion against the judiciary,” after the latter decided, based on a legal study, to resume his investigation by bypassing the judicial deadlock he faced due to a series of appeals filed against him by suspects — which were deemed abusive.
