Beirut explosions: investigation begins amid general skepticism

Briefcases filled with dollars, gold ingots, bank transfers, elevator returns… Will corruption, which made possible the criminal storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut, be at the heart? interrogations that begin on Monday, August 17, to establish responsibility for the deadly explosions that devastated the Lebanese capital?

In a tweet, the founder of the NGO Legal Agenda, Nizar Saghieh, referred to an investigation "doomed to failure from its inception". A reaction that follows the appointment of Fadi Sawan, a military judge, at the head of the investigation. According to his detractors, this appointment does not militate in favor of a daring investigation. For public opinion, the establishment of an international investigation would have benefited from more credibility, but this solution was firmly rejected by the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun.

يبدو أن وزيرة العدل رضخت لمجلس القضاء الأعلى واقترحت اسما ثالثا كمحقق عدلي في قضية مجزرة المرفأ. بنتيجة هذا التجاذب ولعبة الأسماء, بإمكاني أن أقول أن مسار التحقيق فشل منذ بدايته وأن أيا من القيمين على وزارة العدل ومجلس القضاء الأعلى لم يكن على قدر المسؤولية المنتظرة.

This "complex" investigation, as the Lebanese head of state called it, has the particularity of relating to the negligent storage of chemicals that many officials were aware of. In the hours following the explosion of August 4, several Lebanese officials spontaneously mentioned the unsecured presence of this stockpile of ammonium nitrate for six years, while the media retraced in a few hours the path of this dangerous cargo.

Even if Michel Aoun mentioned the hypothesis of "external action, with a missile or a bomb", the track of local failures remains privileged. The thorny question of responsibilities must now be decided by Judge Fadi Sawan.

Blame game

Beirut customs and port officials are among the first suspects. Among the 25 people being prosecuted, 19 of whom are already in preventive detention, are the director of customs, Badri Daher, his predecessor, Chafic Merhi, and the director general of the port of Beirut, Hassan Koraytem.

Judge Fadi Sawan will therefore first have to establish the conditions for entry of this dangerous cargo into Lebanese territory. Has the customs service issued a proper authorization? Or was ammonium nitrate introduced into the Port of Beirut by greasing a few legs?

Customs director Badri Daher, whose service is under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, told the daily L'Orient-Le Jour that he had alerted the courts "on six occasions, between 2014 and until recently" on the need to re-export this dangerous cargo. As for the question of the explosion in itself, Badri Daher points the finger at the authorities of the port of Beirut by evoking "renovation work".

For his part, the director of the port, Hassan Koraytem, ​​whose infrastructure depends on the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said on the LBCI channel that the ammonium nitrate was stored in a hangar under the control of a representative. of Justice.

Large unpacking ... or not

Investigators will therefore have to disentangle the threads of responsibilities in services coming under three different ministries: Finance, Public Works and Transport, Justice. The first skirmishes between the first suspects raise the possibility of a great unpacking that would bring to light the ravages of decades of corruption at the highest level.

These suspicions of widespread corruption arouse the indignation of the Lebanese, who have called on international donors not to pass humanitarian aid through the Lebanese government. Visiting Beirut last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale called for a "moment of truth" in which "all those in power are assuming in one way or another. 'another of the responsibilities ".

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