The allegations of the judicial investigator raise political and sectarian tension .. Has the achievement of justice for the victims of the Beirut bombing become excluded?

More than 4 months after the Beirut port explosion, the local investigation has started down a complex path.

It appears that the allegation of the judicial investigator in the case, Fadi Sawan, against both the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, the former Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, and the former ministers of public works and transportation, Ghazi Zaiter and Youssef Fenianous, whose repercussions took on different aspects following the disagreement of the political forces over the accountability mechanism and the rise of voices accusing the judiciary By "discretionary".

After the investigations carried out the arrest of more than 25 persons responsible for managing the port and its security, Sawan put his last allegation in the context of accusing the officials of "negligence, negligence and causing the death of hundreds of people," and he awaits their interrogation sessions next week about receiving several written correspondence warning them not to procrastinate in Keeping the ammonium nitrate in the Beirut port campus, without taking the necessary measures to avoid the explosion.

The explosion that destroyed Beirut caused the death of more than two hundred people and the injury of about 6,500 others after the ignition of about 2,750 tons of high explosive ammonium nitrate, according to official estimates.

Reactions to Sawan’s allegations continue with statements and stances that fuel tensions in the country. Observers have considered that the indictment public prosecutor’s decision was sufficient to expose the crisis of the political and sectarian system in Lebanon, which could impede the course of any investigation to establish justice.

Constitutional dispute and sectarian tension

Hassan Diab remained for 8 months, starting from his assumption of the premiership at the beginning of the year 2020 until the announcement of her resignation on August 10, following the explosion of the port on August 4, in what looks like a state of rivalry with the club of former prime ministers (Saad Hariri, Fouad Siniora and Tamam) Salam and Najib Mikati), and this dispute continued throughout the period of his running the work of his resigned government, until the allegation of the judicial investigator came, and the former presidents showed solidarity with him in order to defend the prime minister's office, which represents the Sunni community.

The solidarity area has expanded to include the Islamic Sharia Council, which issued a statement on Saturday in which it considered that harm to the position of prime minister affects all Lebanese, not just a sect, and a "dangerous indicator aimed at well-known political goals and intentions to undermine the third presidency."

In the context, Muhammad al-Hajjar, a deputy in the Parliamentary Bloc headed by Saad Hariri, points out that Judge Sawan had previously sent a letter to the House of Representatives on November 24, containing suspicions about heads of government and ministers who took over the portfolios of money, jobs and justice between the two years 2013 and 2020, and they were all 16 people, including 4 prime ministers, but the investigator then took the initiative to contradict himself and abandoned the letter he sent to Parliament.

Al-Hajjar puts - in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net - the position of Hariri and former heads of government in the framework of refusing to bypass the Taif Agreement (1989) and the constitution, which gave Parliament the right to accuse and prosecute a two-thirds majority of ministers before the Supreme Council to try presidents and ministers in only two cases: treason or breach of duties .

The deputy believes that "there is a great discretion in the allegations in the blast file," and he wonders why the investigating judge refused to hear the testimony of President Michel Aoun, who had been informed of one of the correspondences regarding ammonium nitrate, and described Sawan’s performance as "weak" which would facilitate the overthrow of the site The third presidency, the allegations are likely to negatively affect the course of forming the government.

The allegations of the investigating judge come at a time when political leaders in Lebanon are pitted against accusations with various corruption files, and here Al-Hajjar considers that "the judiciary is dealing with discretion as well, and some judges are accused of submitting to the behavior of the presidency and Gebran Bassil."

On the other hand, lawyer and constitutional expert Paul Morcos returns to the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation regarding the trial of ministers in cases that deviate from breach of duties and are referred to the criminal judiciary, and he points out in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net that the current allegation of the judicial investigator is related to criminal crimes, and this does not require referral to the Supreme Council To try presidents and ministers.

As for the president of the republic, it is not possible for the judicial investigator to charge him, according to Morcos, because that is within the authority of the parliament only, pursuant to Article 60 of the constitution, which limits the authority to try the president of the republic before the Supreme Council if he commits the crime of high treason or a common crime.

Morcos describes the composition of the Supreme Council of Presidents and Ministers as hybrid due to the fact that it brings the legislative and judicial powers together, and "requires that the accusation be referred to it by the House of Representatives with a two-thirds majority in the House, and this is difficult to achieve, and therefore the accusation is in its content politically and not judicially."

The Representative Council itself appoints the members of the Supreme Council, provided that its governing body consists of 7 deputies and 8 judges appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council at the request of the House of Representatives, which made its performance a dead letter.

The response of the Presidency of the Republic

After some forces accused President Aoun of interfering in the investigations, the Presidency of the Republic issued a statement yesterday, Saturday, explaining that the first time that Aoun was aware of the presence of quantities of nitrates was through a report by the General Directorate of State Security, which he received on July 21.

The presidential statement confirmed that Aoun did not interfere in Sawan's investigations, but rather called for their completion more than once.

That is why lawyer Wadih Akl, a member of the Political Bureau of the Free Patriotic Movement, considers that there are forces that have complicated the course of investigations by relying on constitutional and sectarian positions, considering - in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net - that the sectarian mobilization constitutes an insult to the victims of the Beirut explosion.

The lawyer was surprised that the judicial investigator was satisfied with the prosecution against Diab in exchange for excluding the rest of the heads of government, stressing that his political movement, which supports the expansion of investigations to reach large heads, does not have any relationship or influence on the judicial investigator.

Aql considers that the President of the Republic has no executive authority in the port file, while all of the group that has executive powers and was aware of the existence of nitrates are the Prosecutor General for Discrimination, Ghassan Awaidat, the heads of government, some ministers, and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Defense Council, Major General Mahmoud Al-Asmar, according to Aql.

Hezbollah's position

It was remarkable for Hezbollah’s position, which rejected what it described as the "absence of uniform standards" in Sawan's allegations, which, according to him, led to the targeting of a politician that affected people and ignored others without the right balance.

Political analyst Wasim Bazzi said in a statement to Al-Jazeera Net, that "the discretion in the prosecution has raised Hezbollah's suspicion about the method of selecting the defendants, while the judge fails to investigate what reveals the identity of those who brought tons of ammonium nitrate and hid them in the port for 7 years until it exploded."

The political analyst considers that the investigative judge’s decision came at a very tense political moment, accompanied by division in the country and American pressure, and therefore, "it is not possible to consider in good faith the partial decisions that violated the required balance in the course of the investigations."

Bazzi pointed out that Hizbullah deals with the harbor explosion file with high sensitivity for fear of being targeted, and "this is what prompted the start of filing lawsuits against everyone who falsely accuses him in this file."

Bazzi Sawan is accused of searching for loose ends in the investigation in exchange for deliberate escape from exposure to some leaders of the security services. He also fears foreign and foreign interference in the investigation to mislead the public opinion in order to prevent accusing Israel of the port crime.

On the other hand, calls have been made to replace an international investigation with a local investigation, which was demanded by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, and the head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, called for an international fact-finding committee.

Wasim Bazzi believes that what is required for Hezbollah in the investigation are three points: clarifying the confusion arising from the judge’s decision by stepping up the investigations into a more persuasive and less politicized context, retracting his allegations, or going for another option, which is to step down from the investigation.