A controversy erupted at the end of the week in Lebanon following the sending, by the outgoing Minister of Economy Raoul Nehmé, of a letter to the examining magistrate at the Court of Justice Tarek Bitar, asking him to publish a ” official report “excluding that” terrorist or belligerent actions “are at the origin of the double explosion of August 4, which would allow to unblock the payment of financial compensation by the insurance companies. The sending of this letter was denounced by several parties as an “interference” in the judicial process, which prompted the minister to publish a press release in which he defends himself from any interference and says he is ready to reformulate his request.
The initial letter, sent on Thursday April 8 and which bears the letterhead of the Insurance Supervisory Commission, an agency under the Ministry of the Economy, is addressed to Judge Bitar, “through the Minister of Justice, Marie-Claude Najm “. In this letter, Mr. Nehmé asks the judge to “publish an official statement which excludes acts of terrorism and war as the causes which led to the explosion of August 4”. This is to enable him to “give his instructions to Lebanese insurance companies so that they pay financial compensation, while respecting the rights of insured citizens”. In his text, the Minister recalls that the majority of insurance companies do not cover damage due to bellicose or terrorist acts.
“Blatant interference”
“We want to let Minister Raoul Nehmé know that his letter to the investigating judge at the court of law constitutes an offense, which is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine”, according to the article 419 of the penal code, tweeted on Saturday morning the lawyer Nizar Saghieh, director of the NGO Legal Agenda. In a second tweet, the lawyer specifies that article 419 reinforces the penalty for people exercising a public function, the minister’s interference in this affair could be punished with a sentence of four and a half years in prison and not three.
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For its part, the committee of relatives of victims of the explosion criticized the minister’s request, accusing him of “appointing himself a judge” and of making “an early judgment which clears terrorism and the Zionist enemy ( Israel, note) of the crime of the explosion of the port, on an unfounded pretext “. “This is not only a blatant and unacceptable interference in the results of the investigation, but also a stab at our national cause and we cannot be silent,” added the association. in a press release.
In reaction, Minister Nehmé affirmed that his letter “was not intended at all to interfere in the legal process” and that he was ready to withdraw it and reformulate it. He stressed that the letter sent on his behalf by the Insurance Supervisory Commission mainly wanted “to stress the importance that the report on the causes of the explosion be published as soon as possible”.
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The explosions in the port of Beirut were caused by a fire that broke out in hangar 12, in which 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate had been stored for years. They killed more than 200 people, left more than 6,000 injured and destroyed entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital. A few days after the explosion, the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, had raised the possibility that this tragedy was caused by an “external intervention”, speaking of a possible missile or a bomb. France, for its part, considered that “sufficient objective elements” were present to believe that the double explosion was of “accidental” origin. Barely hours after the disaster Tel Aviv, for its part, denied any responsibility.
Judge Tarek Bitar, who is in charge of the investigation into the double explosion, has questioned the 25 people currently in detention in this case in recent weeks and is expected to rule on their release from Monday. He had promised the families of the victims, after his appointment on February 20, to give the conclusions of his investigation within three weeks, a deadline however exceeded.
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A controversy erupted at the end of the week in Lebanon following the sending, by the outgoing Minister of Economy Raoul Nehmé, of a letter to the examining magistrate at the Court of Justice Tarek Bitar, asking him to publish a ” official report “excluding that” terrorist or belligerent actions “are at the origin of the double explosion of August 4, which would unblock the …
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