After legal appeals by senior officials

Informing the investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion that he has been formally excluded

Some families of the victims staged a protest in Beirut.

EPA

The state-run National Information Agency in Lebanon reported that the public prosecutor who investigated the huge explosion last year in Beirut was officially informed yesterday that he will not lead any investigation into the port explosion last year.

The country's Supreme Court decision, the day before yesterday, to dismiss the investigating judge, Fadi Sawan, came after legal challenges by senior officials, whom the judge accused of negligence that led to the explosion, which is considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

"The judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, was informed this morning (Friday) upon his arrival at his office, that the Criminal Court of Cassation decided to stop his hand from considering a lawsuit about the port explosion," the agency said.

The court called for a new judge to be assigned to lead the investigation approximately six months after it began.

This move angered the families of the victims of the August 4 explosion, and some of them organized a protest in Beirut the day before yesterday.

More sit-ins are scheduled to take place today (Friday).

The families of the victims said that Sawan was removed from power due to political pressure.

This development is likely to delay the investigation into the terrible explosion, which killed 211 people, injured more than 6,000 others, and affected most of Beirut's neighborhoods.

The families of the victims and survivors accused the ruling political class of corruption and negligence that led to the explosion of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive substance used in fertilizers that had been stored in the port for years.

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