Tarek Bitar, the judge who divides the Lebanese

Demonstrators opposed to Tarek Bitar hold up a portrait of the judge, in Beirut, October 14, 2021. REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR

Text by: Paul Khalifeh Follow

6 mins

In Lebanon, Judge Tarek Bitar, in charge of the investigation into the double explosion at the port of Beirut, which left 218 dead, 6,500 injured and destroyed part of the capital on August 4, 2020, is considered by some to be a vigilante and by others as an executor of a foreign agenda.

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Never has a magistrate aroused so much controversy in Lebanon. Tarek Bitar, in charge of the investigation into the tragedy of the port of Beirut, the third most powerful explosion in the history of mankind, unleashes passions. His admirers and detractors frolic without restraint on social networks, clash mercilessly in the street. For him, or because of him, the Lebanese resuscitated for a day, on October 14, the demarcation lines of the civil war. The politicians have returned to their bellicose speech, heating up the minds of their respective supporters by brutally awakening the confessional fiber.

However, this 47-year-old judge could meet the criteria of bringing together a people divided into communities pitted against each other, and a population bruised by the criminal governance of an irresponsible, greedy and corrupt political class.

A family with a strong statist tradition

Nothing in the family context, the personal life or the professional course of Tarek Bitar suggested that this judge would one day become a divisive character, crystallizing around him the contradictions of a country in shipwreck and a people in suffering. Of Greek-Catholic rite, Tarek Bitar comes from the town of Aïdamoun, in Akkar, in the north of Lebanon. His belonging to this small community and to this peripheral region immediately removes him from the weight of the great Maronite leaders of Mount Lebanon and their clientelist networks which allow them to deploy their social and political hegemony in an excessively confessional system.

Tarek Bitar comes from a family with a strong statist tradition. His grandfather, Jabbour, was in the military. One of his uncles was an inspector at the Ministry of National Education, another was a doctor. His father, Fayez, father of eight, made his fortune in Venezuela before returning to settle in Lebanon. Like many traders and entrepreneurs, he went bankrupt in the mid-1980s when the Lebanese pound first depreciated.

Those who know Tarek Bitar describe him as a man open to other faiths, freed from the reflex of community withdrawal from which some of the Lebanese suffer.

" 

 ," said a journalist who knows the family well.

His father's sympathies for the ideas of the Syrian National Social Party (PSNS, which defends the Greater Syria project), one of the few non-denominational groups in Lebanon, undoubtedly influenced his intellectual construction and his vision of society. Lebanese.

Knowledge of deep Lebanon

To his credit, the graduate obtained from the Lebanese (public) university, where he was able to rub shoulders with students of various social ranks, communities and regions, in a country where private universities, belonging to religious congregations or financed by extraterritorial capital, become privileged places for intellectual and community training. Professionally, he worked for fifteen years in the courts of the large Sunni city of Tripoli, which allowed him to perfect his knowledge of deep Lebanon, where belonging to the community often takes precedence over the concept of citizenship. .

In 2017, he was appointed president of the Beirut Criminal Court.

He stood out for the speed of his verdicts in a slow and cumbersome judicial system, his intransigence in law enforcement and his refusal of any political interference in his decisions.

In Beirut, he is called upon to deal with issues that have hit the headlines.

He does not hesitate to sentence murderers to death, to a large fine a doctor and a hospital found guilty of a medical error, and to heavy sentences of drug traffickers.

" 

 ", comments a lawyer who knows him.

A "

selective

 " and " 

politicized

 "

investigation

It is therefore this man who is today at the heart of the turmoil. For the head of Hezbollah to devote several speeches to him, the stakes are high. Hassan Nasrallah accuses him of being “ 

” and of “ 

” the investigation which he resumed in February after the dismissal of his predecessor, Fadi Sawan.

His detractors accuse him of having taken legal action against a specific political camp. In the judge's sights are, indeed, the former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, whose government was supported by Hezbollah, ministers and deputies close to the Speaker of the House Nabih Berry, or the Christian formation of the "Marada" , allies of the Shiite party. There is also the Director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, who enjoys the confidence of Hassan Nasrallah.

Tarek Bitar's opponents do not understand why he has not taken legal action against all the prime ministers and senior political and security officials who have succeeded each other since the arrival in Beirut in 2013 of the cargo of nitrate from ammonium which exploded on August 4, 2020. Among them are the current Prime Minister Najib Mikati, his predecessor Saad Hariri. Why did he question the former army chief Jean Kahwaji and spare the current commander-in-chief, Joseph Aoun? Why is he focusing his investigation on " 

" and " 

 Instead of trying to find out how the ammonium nitrate landed at the port and who was the cargo destined for? Why did he not take up the file of the discovery, in September, in the Bekàa plain, with a supporter of the Christian party of the Lebanese Forces, of 20 tons of this material having the same constitution as the stock? who exploded at the port? His critics accuse him of meeting American and European diplomats far from the cameras, proof that " 

," says a deputy who wishes to remain anonymous.

For the defenders of Tarek Bitar, the judge is master of his investigation and he leads it as he sees fit.

Through its pressure, Hezbollah seeks to influence the course of justice " 

".

Unperturbed despite the dramatic development of the situation and the paralysis of the Council of Ministers which no longer meets due to the sulkiness of its Shiite components, Tarek Bitar continues his mission.

How long will he resist this pressure?

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