2023-08-04 04:00:03
Anniversary of the Beirut Port explosion: 3 years of turning against the investigations
Today, Friday, Lebanon commemorates the third anniversary of the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, following a political and judicial coup, which impeded the resumption of investigations after they were halted for about 13 months, released all those arrested in the file, and transferred Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, from a judicial investigator in the case, to Defendant, prosecuted, for usurpation of power.
In contrast to the insistence of the political authority on obstructing the course of the investigation, the families of the victims, who carried out more than 300 actions, adhere to the path of justice and accountability, refusing to surrender, despite the many pressures they were subjected to, the arrests of some of them and the search of their homes, and they were able to stand up to several attempts to obscure the truth, and they are Today, they are working towards forming an international fact-finding commission to assist in the investigation.
3 years since the Beirut port explosion
Three years after an explosion that represented one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in world history, killing 218 people, injuring more than 7,000 others, causing losses estimated at $15 billion, and displacing 300,000 people, no progress has been recorded in the local investigation, in light of The protection enjoyed by the defendants and senior political and security officials from judicial interrogation, knowing that international organizations have documented errors and omissions committed by employees and political and security officials in their management of the shipment of ammonium nitrate since its arrival at the port of Beirut on board the “Roussos” ship in 2013, until the explosion. And they failed to protect people.
Sahar Mandour: The period of freezing the investigation is much longer than the period of its validity
Among the most prominent events that took place in the third year after the explosion, Judge Al-Bitar resumed his investigations on January 23, released five detainees out of 17, and charged eight new people in the file, including the Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, judges, and security leaders. and set dates for the interrogation of other defendants, including former ministers and army officers.
For his part, the Public Prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, bypassed the Court of Cassation’s decision to accept his resignation from the file, due to his kinship with the defendant, former minister, Representative Ghazi Zuaiter (belongs to the Amal movement headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri).
Oweidat took a number of measures against him, including preventing all security services from implementing Al-Bitar’s decisions, releasing all detainees, and issuing a decision banning their travel, and this was related to the scandal of letting the head of the Security and Safety Department at the Beirut port, Muhammad Ziyad Al-Awf, who holds American citizenship, leave through Beirut International Airport to the United States upon his release.
Overturning the investigation
Likewise, Oweidat claimed Al-Bitar on charges of usurping power and preventing him from traveling, in a step put by the families of the victims within the framework of the coup against the investigation and an attempt to obscure the truth, while the judicial front flared up, with the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, confirming that all of Oweidat’s decisions are contrary to the law, and that he continues to bear His responsibilities, and the holding of interrogation sessions, before he postponed the sessions, on February 6, pending a decision on the case against him.
The Supreme Judicial Council appointed Judge Habib Rizkallah to hear Oweidat’s complaint against Al-Bitar, while the Prosecution Office of the Beirut Bar Association filed a penal and disciplinary complaint against Oweidat.
Among the developments in the file, too, was the proposal of the Minister of Justice, Henri Khoury, who is government affiliated with the “Free Patriotic Movement” (headed by Representative Gebran Bassil), to appoint a substitute judge for Judge Al-Bitar, to decide on necessary and urgent issues, including releases, at a time when the movement was accused of trying to The release of detainees politically affiliated with him, headed by the former Director General of Customs, Badri Daher, bearing in mind that this proposal fell through, due to judicial and political tensions and the great pressure from the families of the victims who carried out movements opposing this “coup” step, as they put it.
Likewise, the beginning of the third year witnessed the collapse of parts of the Beirut port silos, at a time when the government decided to demolish them under the pretext of fear for the public safety of citizens and workers, but this step, in turn, had the people on the lookout, as they saw in the silos a witness to the explosion.
And due to the local disruption of the investigation, the third year witnessed the issuance of the first judicial ruling in the first place, outside Lebanon, in the port explosion case, as the British Court of Justice ruled in favor of the families of the victims represented by the Prosecution Office of the Beirut Bar Association, against the English company “Savaro Limited”, responsible for the shipment of ammonium nitrate, in the civil lawsuit that was filed against her on August 2, 2021, and the office was able to stop the liquidation process that the company launched to evade its responsibility for the explosion, noting that the political authority in Lebanon did not move a finger in this file.
Nizar Saghieh: The battle has become a battle for achieving justice in Lebanon
In the international context, the former head of the Bar Association, Representative Melhem Khalaf, said in a meeting organized by the “Legal Agenda”, in which the “New Arab” participated, on the third anniversary of the port explosion, that out of 16 international judicial letters of attorney issued by the judicial investigator, only the international response was received with 6 of them.
Khalaf revealed that he wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, 3 times when he was the head of the Bar Association, and the union received only a brief and empty answer consisting of 3 lines, while the US Federal Bureau of Investigation “FBI” relied on the information of the Lebanese authorities, while the experts did not put The British have not submitted any report yet, and the French have not yet submitted their final report, while Lebanon has not received the satellite images, on the pretext that they did not capture what happened on August 4, 2020.
obstructing the progress of investigations
For her part, Sahar Mandour, a researcher specializing in Lebanese affairs at Amnesty International, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Lebanese authorities have continued for the third year to obstruct investigations and access to truth and justice in the file.
Politicians suspected of involvement in the case submitted more than 25 requests for the dismissal of Judge Al-Bitar, and the dismissal of other judges supervising the case, while international organizations documented a set of procedural and methodological flaws in the local investigation.
Mandour indicated that there is an effort by the authorities to protect the concerned politicians, security personnel, and official officials from interrogation, prosecution, and arrest, and the situation is very unfortunate, as if there is a perpetuation of the crime by preventing access to justice, as the period of freezing the investigation is much longer than its validity period during these three years. Which makes us face a continuous crime.
Mandour pointed out, “Despite our adherence to the need to resume local investigations, and to grant Al-Bitar all the necessary powers and protections, it is clear that the local investigation cannot achieve justice, and we witnessed long-term detentions, then an incomprehensible release, and then mutual lawsuits between The investigating judge and the cassation public prosecutor, and a huge number of arbitrary lawsuits.
And she believed that “the aim of all this is to create a gap between the investigation and reality, which makes the establishment of an international fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council more urgent, and it is a step that the families of the victims seek to achieve, and we are working in turn to re-introduce the file and urge justice to be achieved.” in Lebanon.”
Mandour stressed that “our demand” and other international organizations, in light of the ongoing stagnation in the investigation, and its complete marginalization from the context of the crime, is to establish an international fact-finding mission, that is independent and impartial, that establishes the facts and circumstances, including the original causes of the explosion, with the aim of proving the responsibility of the state and individuals and supporting justice. and compensation to the victims.
She indicated that her role should also include counting the human rights violations following the explosion, whether with the right to housing, medicine or compensation, as there is a network of human rights violations that continue without accountability.
Mariana Fadolian: We are for the establishment of an international fact-finding mission that can assist the investigation
In turn, one of the founders of the “Legal Agenda”, Nizar Saghieh, told The New Arab that in the first year of the Beirut port explosion, immunities were used as a tool to hinder investigations, as requests to lift the immunities of deputies and officials for questioning by the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq al-Bitar, were rejected. It was referred to the competent authorities, while the unemployed moved to the civil trials game with the aim of obstruction. There were more than 40 cases of response, contention and legitimate suspicion, primarily against Judge Al-Bitar and other judges.
As for the third year, according to Saghieh: “We witnessed the effects of the coup, when Al-Bitar relied on jurisprudence with the aim of overcoming the obstruction that lasted for more than a year and two months, and liberation from the effects of the arbitrary lawsuits that were submitted,” considering what is happening absolutely absurd, and a denial of truth and access to justice.
He added that the Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, decided to transform Al-Bitar from a judicial investigator into a defendant of usurping power, and we are waiting today for the judge who will consider the case to take the decision and determine who usurped power, is he the one who assaulted and disrupted the judiciary and is still there, or Al-Bitar who He tried to restore power in order to give truth and justice to the people.
The battle for justice
Saghieh pointed out that the battle is no longer linked to a single case or to the families of the victims, but has become a battle to achieve justice in Lebanon. Justice is only sporadic, but the battle must remain.
On the other hand, Saghieh considered that the breach that we “await” today to move the file lies in deciding the issue of usurping power, and saying that the one who usurped power is not the al-Bitar, but rather the one who obstructed the investigation throughout the last period, and that what al-Bitar did is to put an end to judicial tampering. TRUE.
In turn, Mariana Fadoulian, the head of the Association of Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion, and the sister of the victim, Gaya, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that, “The militia mafiosi system that rules Lebanon is concerned with impunity by interfering with the work of the judiciary. Harnessing the crime, by limiting it to the framework of negligence to evade its responsibilities, knowing that it was aware of the presence of ammonium nitrate in the port, and the dangers of storing that substance, so it implicitly expected the risks of death, just as it did not move a finger when the fire broke out, which lasted 45 minutes, while it had to warn people and prevent them From approaching and evacuating places near the port, and this is another crime on the shoulders of officials.
Fadoulian pointed out that the ruling system strived to bury the file in every way, by trying to refer it to parliament, which we responded to, and then the requests for response, litigation, transfer of the lawsuit, and abuse of the right, which were filed by the defendants in the face of Judge Al-Bitar before Judge Oweidat joined them in his claim. Ali al-Bitar, as it obstructed the judicial formations, and tried to create the heresy of the alternative judge, and other methods that it resorted to with the aim of obscuring the truth and impunity, but we will not despair, and our Sunni motto is “for justice and accountability we will continue.”
Ahmed Mroueh: There are renewed attempts to erase the visual memory of the port crime
Fadulian indicated that we are with the establishment of an international fact-finding mission that can assist the investigation, and benefit the judge a lot with information, especially to which he was unable to obtain answers to it from the countries that received judicial authorizations, and did not respond to them, and we will pressure the member states of the Human Rights Council to vote. with this decision.
Visual memory abolition
For his part, the director of the Social and Economic Justice Initiative “Together”, Ahmed Mroueh, saw that there are renewed attempts to erase the visual memory of the port crime by demolishing the silos, just as the memory of the Lebanese war (1975-1990) was erased, as there are separate accounts and not a single memory of the war.
From here came our initiative to preserve the memory of August 4 through the “Beirut 607” website, which documents the stories of the victims and follows up on the cases of those injured as a result of the explosion, indicating that the site was subjected to more than one hacking operation.
Mroue pointed out that the Referee Club in Lebanon succeeded in undermining all efforts to reach justice, as it politicized the file, sentenced Judge Al-Bitar and intensified campaigns to defame him, even before he began his duties and took any measures, at a time when the Referee Club has the ability to access all tools. Communicate with people and convince them of their claims more than the victim communities.
Marwa indicated that 3 years have passed and new victims are still falling as a result of the explosion, among the wounded who suffered severe injuries and critical conditions, and the crime in turn continues, with its repercussions on the injured and affected and those who lost their jobs, businesses and source of livelihood, and who suffer in securing the costs of treatment, in light of the state’s neglect of their conditions. And the failure to secure adequate compensation for them and long-term health coverage, in addition to their already suffering, like all Lebanese, from the monetary collapse that exacerbates their condition.
On the other hand, Marwa saw that the most important thing that happened in these three years was that the victim community gathered more, and its involvement in the file at all levels, even legal and judicial, to be fully aware of everything that is happening, except for its field movements, which it continues despite the investigations, arrests and searches that have taken place. Some of the families of the victims, and the attempt to separate them, and this in itself keeps hope alive, in a society that refuses to surrender and wants to fight to reach justice despite the difficult path.
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