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Beirut (AFP) – A French investigating judge is visiting Lebanon this month to investigate information requested by the French judiciary about the Beirut port explosion, for which he has received no responses, a judicial official told AFP on Wednesday.
The inquiry into the blast that occurred on 4 August 2020 has been pending since late 2021 due to lawsuits subsequently filed by defendants, including current MPs and former ministers, against the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, who oversees the investigations.
The judicial official said, “A French investigating judge will visit Lebanon on January 23, to meet the following day with Judge Subuh Suleiman, the discriminatory prosecutor who is following up on the port dossier by the prosecution.”
He added: “The French judge intends to inquire about judicial letters sent to Lebanon as part of an investigation in France into the port explosion,” noting that the Lebanese side will inform him that it “has not received responses, since the investigation Lebanese was still outstanding.”
Interim Justice Minister Henry Khoury confirmed the date of the visit in a press conference on Wednesday, explaining that the provisions relating to it and how to deal with it are up to the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation.
About a week after the explosion, the Paris public prosecutor’s office commissioned two investigating judges from the mass casualties department to investigate the port explosion, given the presence of French people among the victims. A judicial inquiry has been opened on charges of “manslaughter” and “culpable injury”.
There are at least two French dead and more than ninety wounded, among the more than 215 dead and 6,500 wounded from the blast.
The explosion of 4 August 2020, according to the authorities, resulted from the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate inside the port without precautionary measures, following the outbreak of a fire whose causes are unknown. It later turned out that officials at different levels were aware of the dangers of storing the substance and did not lift a finger.
The suspension of the investigations in Lebanon and the repeated political interventions fuel the anger of some relatives of the victims of the explosion, who on Tuesday organized a protest stand in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut. Human rights organizations are also calling on the United Nations to send an independent fact-finding mission, in the face of faltering local investigations.
© 2023 AFP
