In “City” it says:
The Beirut port explosion file dominated the “judicial scene” in 2022. The file turned into a long series of lawsuits and legal proceedings that blocked the investigation, obstructed it and evaded justice. For a whole year the file was suspended and frozen, and the investigation was diverted from its course due to the progress of the political and judicial struggles.
Firstly, the investigation into the port explosion case in December 2021 was stopped due to requests for an answer to Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, who stopped examining the file. And in 2022, the series of response requests began, which the political forces adopted to hinder the investigation.
The investigation in 2022 can be summarized as follows: the file for the decision and consideration of the requests for an answer filed against Al-Bitar was referred to Judge Jean Eid, who stopped examining the request for an answer due to a response request filed against him by former minister Ghazi Zuaiter, later abandoned by Judge Rola Al-Masry. Eid reconsidered the response request made against Al-Bitar and eventually withdrew his hand from the file after informing him of the purport to sue the state. The Cassation Court decided to resign Justice Eid to assign Justice Jean-Marc Aweys, and withdrew the latter’s hand after Representative Ali Hassan Khalil and former Minister Ghazi Zuaiter filed a lawsuit against the state against Aweys.
2022 can also be considered the year of protests and popular movements. On the 4th of each month, the families of the victims continued to stand guard in front of the expatriate’s statue, demanding that Judge Al-Bitar return to his investigation. While in the vicinity of the Palace of Justice, weekly protests were held by the families of the victims and the families of the detainees, each separately, coinciding with the sessions of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary to discuss judicial formations and follow up on the port file. Their six-monthly meetings with Judge Suhail Abboud and with the Attorney’s Office were also renewed, to tirelessly follow the case, and they turned to the international judiciary.
While the families of those arrested during this year have resorted to weekly meetings with active political parties, in particular the Free Patriotic Movement, to demand the release of their children who have declared a hunger strike.
Throughout 2022, political forces did not hesitate to put pressure on the judiciary to dilute the case, exemplified by the “visits” to the President of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, Suhail Abboud, at the Palace of Justice.
The Shiite duo chose to obstruct justice with the law, adopting the state’s legal litigation policy, which is Article 751 of the Principles of Civil Trials. While political and popular pressure from the Free Patriotic Movement – before the end of former President Michel Aoun’s mandate – was on the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, to appoint a judicial investigator, with the aim of freeing the director general of Lebanese customs, Badri Daher and the rest of the inmates. A fierce clash ensued between the families of the victims and the families of the detainees, in front of the entrance to the Palace of Justice, so much so that the Lebanese army and riot police intervened to separate the two gatherings, and prevent them from colliding together.
The year 2022 has seen several sessions of the Supreme Judicial Council to appoint the Reserve Judicial Investigator. At the time, Justice Minister Henry Khoury tried to choose Judge Samaranda Nassar, so his name circulated again and again, so much so that former President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, announced on October 31 that Samaranda Nassar it was the most appropriate choice.
In practice, the port file entered a state of clinical death after the number of state lawsuits against Judge Al-Bitar in 2022 reached more than 42, and was considered a precedent in the history of the judiciary. This prevented him from expressing any position and blocked the investigation for a whole year. Despite promises by Judge Abboud to return Al-Bitar within a period not exceeding two weeks and to find a legal and constitutional way out to resolve this file, all these promises never materialised.
During the year 2022, the affected people tried to put pressure on the Lebanese state and its institutions, to ask for their assistance in the phase of their treatment, so they participated several times in the vigils of the families of the victims, in addition to their participation in various conferences in support of their rights. Especially since this year the Victims’ Families Committee had announced 6 new victims. They are: Ramy Fawaz, Julia Odeh, George Haddad, Abd al-Rahman Bashinati, George Johnny and Rita Hardini.
We can give different names to the port question during 2022, as it is the year of obstruction and abuse, the year of judicial heresy, the year of political malice, the year of judicial battles and the year of justice lost. Despite all efforts to find constitutional and legal ways out to resolve this file, the investigation into the clinical death case has been ongoing since 2021.
It is possible that early next year we will see a close solution in this file, such as the resolution of the issue of judicial formations, or that Judge Al-Bitar returns to his office to follow up the investigation, and perhaps, the delay will continue indefinitely.
