'Where is the truth?': Orthodox Metropolitan Audi urges justice for Aug. 4 victims

The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut, Metropolitan Elias Audi, urged the state during a Sunday Mass dedicated to the victims of the Beirut port explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, to "shed full light on the truth and deliver justice."

Two days before the sixth anniversary of the tragedy, the religious leader made a heartfelt plea: "Six years have passed, and the families of the victims still cry out the same question: Where is the truth? Who killed our children? Who destroyed the capital? Who turned part of it into heaps of rubble, burying the bodies of their loved ones and their hopes?"

"The truth remains submerged under the waves of interests, and justice is continuously obstructed each time it nears revealing those responsible," he lamented.

"How can a state ask its people to trust it when it is incapable of telling the truth, or does not wish to?" the metropolitan continued.

He then appealed to those in power: "We count on the wisdom of the president of this beloved country, the resolve of the head of its government, and the conscience of those honest men who remain and work under the rule of law, far from corruption and personal interests, so that they may provide answers capable of soothing hearts and souls," he said.

More than five years after launching the investigation into the explosion in February 2021, investigative Judge Tarek Bitar of the Court of Justice closed his probe at the end of March after a process fraught with obstacles. These included legal appeals by political officials implicated in the disaster, the paralysis of the courts responsible for reviewing those appeals, and proceedings brought against him by former Court of Cassation Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, who was also implicated.

Judge Bitar has forwarded the case file to the Cassation Prosecutor's Office for indictment. Lawyers now hope the indictment will be issued in the coming months and that any resulting arrest warrants will be executed without political interference.

Antoine Habib, president of the Association for the Development of Tripoli and Mina and head of the Housing Bank, described the tragedy as a "deep wound in the national conscience" and "one of the greatest tragedies to have struck Lebanon."

The explosion at the Beirut Port on Aug. 4, 2020, killed 235 people, injured 6,500 others and left 300,000 homeless, while entire neighborhoods of the capital were destroyed or heavily damaged. The blast was caused by the detonation of nearly 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored without adequate safety measures.