Anger soars in Beirut over port blast probe
PROTESTERS TRY TO BREAK INTO JUDICIARY’S TOP CHAMBERS
Scores of protesters yesterday scuffled with riot police in Beirut as they tried to break into the chief offices of Lebanon’s judiciary, after officials moved to cripple the probe into a massive port explosion that wreaked havoc on the capital city.
Several demonstrators were wounded as police pushed the crowds back from outside Beirut’s historical Palace of Justice, and beat some people with batons.
Lebanon’s chief prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat on Wednesday ordered the release of all suspects detained in the investigation into the deadly 2020 port blast in Beirut and filed charges against the judge leading the probe, Tarek Bitar.
Bitar on Monday resumed the investigation based on his legal interpretation, following a 13-month halt over legal challenges raised by politicians accused in the probe. He also charged over a dozen senior political, judicial, and security officials, including Oweidat.
The recent developments have led to a standoff between the two judges, who each claim the other is breaking the law, crippling the country’s judiciary, as its cash-strapped institutions continue to decay.
The probe has stalled for years, as it threatens to rattle Lebanon’s ruling elite, which is rife with corruption and mismanagement, and has helped push the country into an unprecedented
Several demonstrators were wounded as police pushed the crowds back from outside Beirut’s historical Palace of Justice, and beat some people with batons.
economic meltdown. Hundreds of tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilisers, detonated at Beirut Port on August 4, 2020, killing 218 people, injuring over 6,000 and damaging large parts of the Lebanese capital.
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Bitar told The AP on Wednesday that he will go on with the investigation “even if it is going to cost me my life”, and will only stop if the authorities formally remove him from the investigation.
Lebanon’s highest judicial body, the Higher Judicial Council, was scheduled to meet yesterday afternoon to discuss the latest developments in the inquest, but cancelled due to a lack of quorum. Oweidat was in the building but failed to join the council and stayed in his office guarded by armoured security forces, who later escorted him out.
Advocates for Bitar, which include most of the families of the blast victims, feared the judicial meeting would have issued a decision to remove the maverick judge from the probe.