Debris from the port of Beirut, June 27, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Investigative judge Tarek Bitar, who is in charge of the probe into the double explosion at the port of Beirut, traveled to Bulgaria on Wednesday to question the owner of the Rhosus — the ship that brought in the ammonium nitrate behind the Aug. 4, 2020 tragedy—a judicial official told AFP.
The authorization from Bulgarian authorities comes after another request from Beirut was denied: an extradition request for the owner of the Rhosus, Igor Grechushkin, was turned down due to Lebanon not providing sufficient assurances that it would not apply the death penalty.
Arrested on Sept. 5 at Sofia airport on the basis of an Interpol red notice, the 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot national will be questioned following a request made by Judge Bitar in October.
He faces charges from Lebanese judicial authorities of "bringing explosives into Lebanon, a terrorist act leading to the death of a large number of people, and disabling machinery in order to sink a ship," according to the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office.
"Bitar left for Sofia on Wednesday" and will question Grechushkin on Thursday, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Lebanese embassy in Sofia arranged for a translator and a bailiff to document the interrogation, which will take place in the presence of Bulgarian judicial authorities, the same source said.
Lebanese authorities hope to obtain information about the cargo of ammonium nitrate and, in particular, about who ordered it. They also want to learn whether Beirut was the ship's final destination. According to information from L'Orient-Le Jour, the hearing will be conducted through a Bulgarian magistrate, who will relay the Lebanese judge's questions to Grechushkin.
After the interrogation, Bitar will not be able to arrest him or take any action against him.
Bitar's trip comes after Habib Rizkallah — the ad hoc investigating judge appointed to consider charges of abuse of power and rebellion against the judiciary, filed in January 2023 by former prosecutor Ghassan Oueidate against the judge — lifted the travel ban imposed on him last Thursday.
At the beginning of 2023, Bitar decided to resume the investigation he’d had to halt thirteen months prior, amid hostility from much of the political class — particularly Hezbollah, which accused him of bias — before he himself faced charges of insubordination.
He was able to resume hearings only after President Joseph Aoun and his prime minister took office, pledging judicial independence in the aftermath of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, during which the Iran-backed Shiite movement suffered heavy losses in the autumn of 2024.
This step forward in the judicial process also comes against a backdrop of closer relations between Beirut and Sofia. In early November, Aoun traveled to Bulgaria for talks with his counterpart
Rumen Radev, where he hailed "judicial and criminal cooperation" between the two countries. The Aug. 4 disaster, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, claimed the lives of more than 235 people and injured thousands of others.
