Victims’ kin, minister back judge in Beirut blast probe
Mikati says the government is not keen to interfere in any file related to the judiciary; spokesman for families resigns; inquiry must continue: FPM
The families of the victims of Beirut’s massive port blast last year reaffirmed on Saturday their support for the judge leading the investigation into the explosion, despite increasing calls for his ouster by the Hizbollah group and its allies.
The families’ statement was apparently meant to counter a video released by their spokesman Ibrahim Hoteit on social media late Friday in which he calls on Judge Tarek Bitar to step down.
Hoteit resigned on Saturday, following fears he had been intimidated into urging the dismissal of Bitar.
Many social media users worried that Hoteit, whose brother was killed in the port explosion, had been threatened.
In the video, he is seen glancing off camera as he speaks, in what some charge could be a sign of him speaking under duress.
But Hoteit said he had spoken only for himself and denied having recorded the video under any pressure.
“The only pressure I came under were the events of Thursday and the fear of sliding into civil war,” he said.
“I therefore decided to step down as spokesman” for the families.
Other victims’ relatives, who still support Bitar, said in a statement: “This position does not represent us at all.” William Noun, whose firefighter brother died in the blast, said that he remained firm in his support and that Hoteit “was without doubt pressured.”
Lina Khatib, a senior analyst at the Chatham House think-tank, said the video was “alarming because it is a sudden 180-degree turn from earlier statements in support of the port probe.” “In the video he appears to be under duress,” she said, and the wording of the statement was unlike his usual language.
“All this suggests that Hoteit issued the video statement because he felt pressured to do so.” Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic movement (FPM), said on Saturday the investigation should not be stopped.
“The Free Patriotic movement is with (for) continuing the probe, revealing the truth and putting those responsible on trial,” Gebran
Bassil said in a speech.
Bassil is President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law. The families said he had not coordinated with them, which he always does before making public announcement, and that the video took them by surprise.
Since the August 2020 explosion at Beirut’s port that killed at least 215 people, the families of the victims have taken on an increasingly prominent role in Lebanon with their demands for accountability. Ater the blast, it emerged from documents that several senior politicians and security chiefs knew of the hundreds of tonnes of highly combustible ammonium nitrate stored haphazardly in a port warehouse and did nothing about it.
On Thursday, gunbatles erupted on Beirut streets between two camps opposing and supporting the judge in the probe, killed seven and wounded dozens.
The violence broke out at a protest organised by Hizbollah and Amal groups, which have called for Bitar’s removal.
The two groups have suggested the investigation is heading toward holding them responsible for the blast.
“We, the families of more than 200 martyrs and thousands of injured and hundreds of thousands of people who suffered damages, have put our faith in investigative judge Tarek Bitar,” the families said.
In the video, the spokesman demands the judge step down because “the situation has turned into shedding of the blood of innocent people” - a reference to Thursday’s violence.
The spokesman’s younger brother was killed in the port explosion. Bitar has charged and issued arrests warrant for Lebanon’s former ministers of finance and public works, both close allies of Hizbollah.
Bitar has charged the two, along with another former minister and prime minister, with intentional killing and negligence that led to the blast.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government is keen not to interfere in any file related to the judiciary, according to a statement from his office on Saturday.