2020 Beirut Port Explosion: Attorney General Charged

The remains of the grain silos in the port of Beirut, July 29, 2022. They are unusable and this situation is one of the causes of a recent shortage of flour in Lebanon (illustration image).

AFP - JOSEPH EID

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Tarek Bitar, the judge in charge of the investigation into the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020 has charged the attorney general and three other magistrates with "homicide", a first in the history of Lebanon, said a judicial official. , Tuesday, January 24, to AFP.

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This Monday, January 23, Judge Tarek Bitar decided to resume his investigation into this explosion which left more than 200 dead and 6,500 injured, after a suspension of more than a year, despite the enormous political pressure to which he is subject.

He therefore decided to charge eight new people, according to the official who requested anonymity.

Among them are the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oueidate, and three other judges charged with "homicide, arson and sabotage" in particular.

Corruption and negligence

The huge explosion of August 4, 2020 was caused by the careless storage of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the port.

It was blamed by much of the population on the corruption and negligence of the ruling class, also accused by the families of the victims and NGOs of torpedoing the investigation to avoid indictments.

Thirteen people prosecuted

According to the judicial official, Mr. Oueidate had supervised in 2019 an investigation by the security services into cracks in the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was kept without security measures.

The names of two senior security officials that Judge Bitar indicted leaked on Monday, January 23: Director of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and Head of State Security, Tony Saliba.

In total, thirteen people are being prosecuted, including five officials whom Mr. Bitar had already indicted in the past, including former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and former ministers.

(

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AFP)

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