The Criminal Court of Cassation in Lebanon decided to transfer the investigation file into the Beirut port explosion from the hand of Judge Fadi Sawan to another judge, in response to a request from two former ministers who were dealt with in the investigation.
A judicial source said, "The Criminal Court of Cassation headed by Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar decided to transfer the investigation file into the Beirut Port explosion from the hand of Judge Sawan to another judge," which he had not named yet, explaining that the decision was taken despite opposition from one of the members of the Commission.
The authorities are investigating the blast, which killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others.
The authorities attribute the cause of the explosion to storing huge quantities of ammonium nitrate for years in one of the port wards without protection measures.
It was found that officials at several political, security and judicial levels were aware of the dangers of storing them without taking a finger.
On the tenth of last December, Sawan had claimed against the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, and 3 former ministers, namely, the former finance minister, Ali Hassan Khalil, and the two former labor ministers, Ghazi Zaiter and Youssef Fenianos, but none of them appeared before him in sessions that he specified for interrogation as " Defendants. "
The allegation raised against the four officials the objection of political parties, including Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Hezbollah.
Subsequently, both Zaiter and Khalil filed a memorandum before the Public Prosecution Office of the Cassation, requesting that the case be transferred to another judge, accusing Sawan of violating the constitution by claiming against two former ministers and two deputies in Parliament, while they enjoy constitutional immunity and are supposed to be prosecuted in the House of Representatives, according to opponents of the prosecution decision. .
Zuaiter and Khalil are close to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Sawan suspended the investigations for two months before resuming them last week, after the Court of Cassation returned the file to him, pending the determination of the two ministers' request.
Dangerous command
The "Legal Agenda" organization stated that "constitutional immunity includes breaching the ministerial position and does not include the exploitation of this position, and therefore neither murder nor corruption."
Commenting on the judge’s dismissal, the organization’s executive director, lawyer Nizar, said, “Once the ministers and the political class refuse to be held accountable, they are thus setting a red line for investigation, and this is very dangerous.
He added, "It is a negative step," considering that "setting red lines, which is a traditional matter in Lebanon, precludes achieving any justice."
Investigations into the explosion have not yielded any announced results so far, despite the arrest of at least 25 people, including the most senior officials responsible for managing the port and its security.