Two years after the explosion of Beirut Port..a judicial decision to seize the properties of two defendants

Yesterday, Wednesday, the Lebanese judiciary issued a decision to reserve the properties of two deputies accused in the Beirut Port explosion case, based on a lawsuit submitted by the Beirut Bar Association on behalf of the families of the victims.

And the French Press Agency quoted a judicial source, as saying that "the head of the Beirut Execution Department, Judge Najah Itani, issued a decision to reserve 100 billion pounds on the property of MPs Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zuaiter."

The decision was issued in the context of a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Bar Association before the Civil First Instance Court in Beirut to question the two deputies, for “their abuse of the rights of defense and prosecution, by filing lawsuits that impede the progress of the investigation, and demanding compensation for this abuse of 100 billion pounds,” according to the same source.

The prosecutor's office at the Beirut Bar Association took charge of prosecuting the state by submitting cases in its agency on behalf of nearly 1,400 families of the victims and those affected by the explosion.

Representatives Khalil and Zuaiter belong to the Amal movement, and Khalil had held the position of Finance Minister, and Zuaiter was Minister of Public Works and Transport, and since they were charged with other officials, they have filed several lawsuits to stop the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq al-Bitar, from investigating the explosion.

The investigation raises political division and objection from several Lebanese forces, most notably Hezbollah, which objects to the work of the judicial investigator Al-Bitar, accusing him of "politicizing" the file.

The suspension of the investigation since the end of 2021 is fueling the anger of the divided people over the work of the judicial investigator, Tariq Al-Bitar, who is facing lawsuits filed successively by defendants, including current MPs and former ministers.

A huge explosion occurred on August 4, 2020, at Beirut Port in Ward No. 12, which contained about 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, which had been confiscated from a ship and stored in the port since 2014.

The explosion killed 221 people and injured more than 6,000 others, as well as massive damage to residential buildings and commercial establishments near the port.