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Hundreds gathered on Sunday near the port of Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people, but this time for fear of war breaking out out between Hezbollah and Israel.
The demonstrators took pictures of the victims, demanding justice and holding those responsible for the explosion on August 4, 2020 accountable, while the investigation remains stalled amid political and legal problems.
From the first day, the Lebanese authorities attributed the explosion on August 4, 2020 to the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate inside the port without protective measures after a fire broke out that the his reasons. It became clear later that officials at several levels were aware of the dangers involved in storing the material and did nothing.
The march in Beirut was led by the families of the port’s victims, who formed a group demanding justice.
“We want to know who blew us, took our children, took our youth,” said Sonia Odeh, a 53-year-old housewife.
Vivian Haddad, one of the thousands injured in the blast, asked, “Where is the justice?” She said, “Four years and the criminal has not been arrested.”
She affirmed with determination, “We will continue to demand justice, even for forty years.” We want the gallows to be hung, we are satisfied with lying together. We want to rest and live.”
At the time of the explosion at 18:07, the demonstrators observed a moment of silence to honor the souls of the victims, while ambulances sounded their horns at the same time as the sound of sirens by ships anchored in the port of Beirut.
As a result of not reaching any substantial results in the investigations after four years, the United Nations Special Coordinator in Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said in a statement on Saturday that “without full accountability for mass- a man-made disaster like this explosion is amazing.”
She believed that “the relevant authorities are expected to work hard to remove all the obstacles to the investigation – whether structural or political – but what is happening is just the opposite.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, wrote on the X website in Arabic, “Four years have passed since the explosion, and I always think of Lebanon,” emphasizing ” France’s strong commitment to Lebanon, and our demand for justice for. all victims.”
– “The stroke of judgment and blame” –
In a speech she gave at the show, Cecile Roukoz, one of the lawyers who defended the victims and lost her brother in the explosion, named the political and security officials who obstructed the legal investigation. on the offense and misused their influence.
She said that the problem is in “the prejudice of the judges in the highest positions with the crime,” stressing that “criminals do not scare honest people. ”
After the explosion, the authorities appointed Judge Fadi Sawan as a judicial inspector, but he was quickly removed in February 2021 following his accusations against then Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers on charges of “neglect, negligence, and causing death” and injury to hundreds of people.
The same obstacles faced his successor, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, when he announced his intention to question Diab, at the same time as putting on launched a prosecution process against several former ministers, including representatives, and security and military officials.
The previous parliament refused to lift the immunity of the aforementioned representatives, and the Ministry of the Interior refused to allow him to question security leaders, and the security forces also refused to execute arrest warrants issued by him . The investigation then plunged into the maze of politics and then into judicial chaos after Bitar was besieged by dozens of lawsuits to block his hand, most of them on filing with defense officials.
For more than three years, Al-Bitar could only work officially for about six months, when he was exposed to pressure that declared an unprecedented crisis in the organization judicial, especially after the Deputy Cassation Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat stopped an attempt to restart investigations. early last year.
Al-Bitar resumed his investigations on January 23, 2023, 13 months after they were suspended, and decided to charge eight new people, including Oweidat, and set dates arranged to interrogate 13 defendants.
But Oweidat resisted by accusing him of “revolting against the judiciary and usurping authority,” issued a travel ban against him, and released everyone who was held in the case.
As a result of this, Al-Bitar withdrew from continuing with his decisions. But he plans to “resume his procedures starting next week,” according to a legal source.
The source said that the legal examiner “will set dates from time to time to question all defendants who have not appeared before (…) and if they refuse, he will send out warrants for arrest in absentia. ”
– Fear of war –
Lebanese officials did not mention the anniversary of the explosion, at a time when the country is experiencing tension for fear of an escalation between Iran, Hezbollah and Israel.
Several Western and Arab countries, most recently France, called on their nationals to leave Lebanon, after a new chapter of escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, which reached its peak ten months after an exchange of bombings over the Lebanese border between the two parties against the background of the war in Gaza.
The latest escalation came after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Fouad Shukr in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday. After this the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran in an operation also attributed to Israel. Iran and its allies vowed to respond to the two murders.
During the demonstration in the port, William Noun, who lost his brother from the Beirut Fire Brigade who rushed to put out the fire at the port, said, “Sayyed Hassan (Nasrallah) is loving to the south and hard towards Beirut, “accusing Hezbollah of obstructing the investigation and threatening Judge Al-Bitar inside the Palace of Justice.
Seventy-Lo-Law/BC
2024-08-04 16:18:47
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