The Beirut Bar Association on Wednesday filed nearly 700 complaints with the Lebanese courts.

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Hassan Ammar / AP / SIPA

After the shock, justice.

The Beirut Bar Association announced on Wednesday that it had filed "679 complaints on behalf of the families of the victims, the injured and those affected" by the explosion that occurred on August 4 at the port of Beirut, which left more than 200 dead.

The president of Beirut, Melhem Khalaf, quoted by the national news agency (ANI) specified that this action was for people who “did not have the possibility of obtaining a lawyer” to file a complaint.

"We are facing the horror of a disaster and we will only stop" if "a verdict (...) is issued", he assured, adding that the ongoing investigation should be "deepened to determine responsibilities ".

1,400 files related to the explosion

These some 700 complaints are the first batch made up by the Order among its 1,400 files related to the explosion, having left, in addition to the deaths, more than 6,500 injured and devastated entire districts of Beirut.

Lebanese authorities are investigating the explosion, which they attribute to the storage of huge amounts of ammonium nitrate in the port without precautionary measures.

Several senior officials and officials were warned of the danger posed by the presence of this material but took no action.

Authorities have rejected calls for an international investigation but, nearly three months after the explosion, the local investigation has still not yielded concrete results.

Anger of relatives of victims

Only 25 arrest warrants have been issued against senior port and customs officials as well as security officials.

This has stirred up the anger of relatives of the victims who again threatened an escalation on Wednesday.

French investigators and the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) carried out investigations just after the tragedy.

Lebanon has received the FBI report but is still awaiting that of French experts, scheduled to be handed over to the authorities within a maximum of two weeks, a judicial source said.

"Determine the causes of the explosion"

The local investigation "relies heavily on the French report to determine the causes of the explosion," added this source.

According to Melhem Khalaf, the FBI report is based on "information from Lebanese (security) agencies", while the French report is "based on the results of laboratory analyzes".

Lebanon says it is still waiting for satellite images requested from France and Italy, which are slow to reach it, raising questions in local official circles.

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