Six months after the tragedy of August 4, which left more than 200 dead and 6,500 injured, the investigation into the explosion at the port of Beirut risks starting over again with the departure of Fadi Sawan.

The judge was challenged Thursday, February 18, by the Lebanese court of cassation while at the same time, angry public opinion and Lebanon's international partners, including France, are still awaiting answers.

The explosion was caused by an enormous quantity of ammonium nitrate, stored "without precaution" for several years in a warehouse of the port, by the admission of the authorities considered largely responsible for the tragedy because of their negligence. and their carelessness.

"The Court of Cassation chaired by Judge Jamal al-Hajar has decided to transfer the investigation (...) from the hands of investigating judge Fadi Sawan to another judge," a judicial source told AFP on Thursday. speaking under anonymity.

The new judge has yet to be appointed, according to the source.

At the end of the afternoon a few dozen demonstrators, relatives of deceased people, gathered near the Beirut court to protest.

"Where are the results of the investigation?" Read a sign, while several participants held up the portraits of the victims.

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"We do not trust you, you are playing us, we will not wait 15 years to take what is owed to us", yelled in front of the television cameras the sister of a victim.

"Today, you killed us once again. The investigation is over, we are back to square one," said a representative of the families.     

Political immunity and provisional suspension of the investigation

The court was ruling on a request for disqualification presented in mid-December by two parliamentarians and former ministers, Ali Hassan Khalil (Finance) and Ghazi Zaayter (Public Works and Transport), shortly after their indictment by Fadi Sawan.

The two men, along with the resigning prime minister, Hassan Diab, and another former minister, Youssef Fenianos, were accused of "negligence and causing hundreds of deaths".

In presenting their request, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zaayter claimed that the procedures launched by the examining magistrate violated the Constitution and provisions on their immunity.

At the time, several heavyweights in political life had castigated the indictment, including Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri or the influential Shiite movement Hezbollah, believing that any indictment of a minister or parliamentarian had to go through Parliament.

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Fadi Sawan's investigation had been suspended for more than two months, while the Court of Cassation studied the case.

In its decision Thursday, it agreed with the two plaintiffs who questioned the objectivity of Fadi Sawan because his home was affected by the explosion, according to the judicial source.

Mystery of the arrival of the shipment of ammonium nitrate in Beirut

In a country plagued by endemic corruption, ruled by a political class that has remained largely unchanged for decades and where officials are regularly accused of interfering in the affairs of the judiciary, human rights defenders have castigated the verdict.

"We are back to square one," lamented Human Rights Watch researcher Aya Majzoub, denouncing a "parody of justice".

"The courts have drawn the red lines: politicians are not subject to the law," she lamented, reiterating a call for an "independent international investigation" that Beirut has chosen to ignore.

"By refusing to find themselves in a position where they must be accountable, the ministers and the political class impose a red line on the investigation," reacted Nizar Saghieh, director of the legal NGO Legal Agenda, deploring a pattern " classic in Lebanon which prevents justice from being done ".

Twenty-five people, including port and customs officials, were arrested as part of the preliminary investigation, in which experts from France, but also the US federal police participated.

So far, the investigation has focused on the responsibilities for the storage of ammonium nitrate, without looking into how this cargo arrived in Beirut.

But in view of a possible summons, Fadi Sawan this week asked the security forces for additional information on three Syrian businessmen, suspected of having chartered the cargo.

With AFP

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