Suspension of the investigation into the Beirut port explosion, following a request to change investigator

The judicial investigator in the Beirut port bombing case, Judge Fadi Sawan, suspended investigations for ten days after two former ministers accused of filing a memorandum calling for the case to be transferred to another judge, according to a judicial source informed the «Agence France».
On December 10, Sawan had brought charges against Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former Ministers, namely former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and former Minister of Public Works Ghazi Zaiter and Youssef Fenianos, but none of them appeared. before him in the sessions he specified for questioning as “Defendants.”
Lebanese authorities are investigating the explosion, which occurred on August 4, and attributed it to the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate for years in one of the port’s pavilions without preventive measures. Officials at various levels were found to be aware of the dangers of storing them without taking the necessary measures. Zuaiter and Khalil, close to the president of the Parliament Nabih Berri, presented a memorandum to the Public Ministry in which they requested that the case be transferred to another judge, after accusing Sawan of violating the constitution by claiming against two former ministers and two current deputies.
The judicial source explained that “the request was sent to the Criminal Cassation Court,” indicating that “all parties to the case, from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to the judicial investigator and the Bar Association with its agency, for the affected plaintiffs due to the explosion, they have ten deadlines to reply to this memorandum ”.
As a result, the source claimed that Sawan “has suspended all investigative procedures until the Court of Cassation decides on the request to transfer the case.” As a result, on Monday a session that was scheduled for Friday to question Diab, who did not appear in a first session, was canceled.
Currently, there is a divergence of views in Lebanon regarding the authority of the authorized party to prosecute the prime minister, ministers and deputies in the case of the port.
And last month, Sawan asked parliament to investigate current and former ministers on suspicion of failing in their jobs in dealing with the presence of ammonium nitrate in the port. However, Parliament rejected his request, thus initiating the prosecution of the four officials on charges of “negligence, negligence and causing death” and injuring hundreds of people.
More than a month ago, the Beirut Bar Association filed hundreds of criminal complaints with the Attorney General for discrimination on behalf of those affected.
The explosion killed more than two hundred people and injured more than 6,500. Plus billions of dollars in damages.