Formed on September 10 after thirteen long months of political vacuum and in the midst of the economic collapse of Lebanon, the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati is already at risk of implosion.

While it had to concentrate on launching the reforms in an attempt to get the country out of the Cedars of the crisis, the cabinet found itself paralyzed by political tensions around the dossier of the investigation into the devastating and deadly explosion at the port of Beirut, which occurred on August 4, 2020.

Tensions at the origin of the deadly violence that took place on October 14 in Beirut, on the sidelines of a demonstration organized by Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, to demand the relinquishment of judge Tarek Bitar, in charge of the 'investigation.

However, at the very moment when the situation got out of hand in the streets and Lebanon revived with images reminding it of certain bloody episodes of the civil war (1975-1990), the Court of Cassation rejected, on October 14, the complaints lodged by certain former ministers against Tarek Bitar, allowing him to resume his investigations into the case of the explosions at the port of Beirut.

"From a legal point of view everything is clear since in accordance with the decisions rendered by the various Lebanese courts, seized in recent weeks, Judge Tarek Bitar remains in charge, explains Antoine Sfeir, lawyer in Beirut and Paris, and professor of law. international at the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut, interviewed by France 24. It is from a political point of view that this question has become explosive for the government ".

Unease within the government itself

And for good reason, the Shiite political tandem has carried out its standoff against Judge Tarek Bitar within the Council of Ministers itself.

The ministers close to these two parties notably demanded, on 12 October, that a position be taken in the Council of Ministers on the relinquishment of the investigating judge, whom they accuse of being politicized and of having issued warrants of arrest against former ministers close to Hezbollah, including Ali Hassan Khalil, himself a leading executive of the Amal movement.

This initiative provoked a heated debate on the separation of powers within the cabinet, to the point that the meeting had to be adjourned.

According to Lebanese media, the meeting which was scheduled for the next day was postponed to avoid another crisis, amid rumors of blackmail on the part of Shiite ministers to resign if a decision concerning the judge was not not taken by the government.

A sign of unease within the executive, Gebran Bassil, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL), the main Christian force in parliament and Hezbollah's political ally, provided implicit support for the judge.

"The CPL is for the continuation of the investigation, the revelation of the truth and to bring those responsible to justice", he declared.

For his part, Lebanese Justice Minister Henry Khoury expressed his support for the magistrate on Saturday, saying he had the right to summon anyone he wanted, according to Al-Jadeed television.

He recalled that he did not have the power to replace Tarek Bitar, who had been the target during the month of threats made by a senior Hezbollah official, who seems obsessed with this investigation while rumors according to which the politico-military movement would be involved in the storage of tons of ammonium nitrate, at the origin of the explosions of August 4, 2020, are still circulating in Lebanon.

On Monday, October 11, in a televised speech, the Secretary General of the pro-Iranian party, Hassan Nasrallah, himself once again attacked the judge by accusing him of "carrying out political targeting", and by suspecting him "of not not wanting to reveal the truth ".  

"We've had enough of you. We'll go all the way with legal means, and if that doesn't work, we'll bust you."

This is the message that was sent, according to several Lebanese media, by Wafic Safa, the head of the Hezbollah security apparatus, and transmitted to the judge through a journalist whose identity has remained secret.

Placed with his back to the wall by internal political pressure on one side and by the popular will of the families of the victims who remain attached to Judge Bitar, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, for his part, has ruled out any idea of ​​resignation.

He nevertheless told the Al-Modon news site, in an interview published on Sunday, that he will not convene a Council of Ministers "before having found a solution".

The Prime Minister refused to take a position against the judicial system, whose decisions so far go in the direction of the magistrate, who will be received by the Superior Council of the Magistracy on Tuesday to be heard on the progress of the investigation.

"I will not interfere in the work of justice. (...) I informed everyone by telling them that I will not interfere in the work of the investigating judge at the Court of Justice Tarek Bitar" , Najib Mikati told Al-Modon.

"If you demand justice, you will reap another civil war"

"If the Prime Minister and other officials seem to support the judge, it is because he is under popular pressure from a population that thirsts for justice," said Mona Fawaz, professor at the American University of Beirut and member of Beirut Madinati, one of the civil society groups active in the uprising of October 17, 2019.

"The Lebanese have lost confidence in most of the country's institutions which have been swallowed up for thirty years by the same corrupt political class," she confides to France 24. And today we are witnessing an attempt to undermine to the independence of the judiciary, and precisely in this specific case to that of the investigation into the explosions of August 4, 2020, which many of us consider to be the result of the negligence of the political elite " .

She says she perceives the political clash around the investigation and Judge Bitar, which materialized in the street fighting on October 14, "as an attack orchestrated and organized by political parties" with the aim of sending a message to the Lebanese people: "If you demand justice, you will reap another civil war".

The political conflict around Judge Bitar has turned into a security conflict in the street at the very moment when everything must be done to avoid a resignation of the government "which would be able to bury the last hopes of an economic surge, underlines of his side Antoine Sfeir. 

"This proves that the Lebanese political system is going through a crisis, and in which the slightest disagreement around an economic, security or judicial issue has existential repercussions for the government". 

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