[ad_1]
Radwan Mortada
French investigators have not submitted their final report on the Beirut port explosion. The new judicial investigator, Tariq Bitar, resumed the investigation from the starting point with the next relief for the detainees who were unjustly imprisoned to satisfy the angry public opinion. This coincides with a new account of precise details, the former Defense Minister Yaqoub Sarraf, who has not yet summoned the Judiciary, despite his declaration of having data and information of great importance related to the attack on the port of Beirut. So what does the cashier have?
It is only in Lebanon that a former defense minister comes out to announce that he has information related to the largest explosion in the country’s history, but the judicial investigator in charge of the investigation does not care about him, but refuses to listen to him. , despite repeated attempts by the minister to express what he has. A few months ago, former Defense Minister Yaqoub Al-Sarraf broke the silence and announced that he had very important data and information related to the Beirut port bombing, but former judicial investigator Fadi Sawan refused to listen to him. Al-Sarraf revealed that he tried to contact Judge Sawan directly, but his attempts were in vain, so he left a notice in his office, but the judicial investigator did not lift a finger. Subsequently, the cashier sent an official letter through the Minister of Justice and transferred it directly to the General Prosecutor of the cassation, who forwarded it to Sawan, but it was also to no avail. Three months passed, during which Sawan was a forensic investigator, completely ignoring what was in the box of the former defense minister, who decided to make what happened to the public.
A new month has been added since Judge Tariq Al-Bitar was assigned the duties of the forensic investigation without summoning the cashier to listen to him, knowing that Judge Al-Bitar has an excuse for the delay because he decided to start the investigation from scratch. As it goes back to hearing the testimonies of the 25 detainees in the file, with the judicial authorizations being drawn up on the route of the ship “Roussos” that was transporting the ammonium nitrate cargo, and the owners of the cargo that exploded in the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, how to buy it and to whom it was imported and who paid for it, to determine the identity of those responsible. It was clear that Judge Al-Bitar developed a methodology that is divided into three parts to define and distribute responsibilities.The first stage enters the nitrates, the second stage empties the ship and stores the nitrates, and the third stage the fire if it was artificial or by chance, even though the nature of the crime, the size of the investigation, the number of detainees, and the expected results required the formation of an investigative committee of several judges, rather than putting the entire burden on one judge who would consume too much time before reaching the final results.
As “Al-Akhbar” learned, the former Defense Minister has aerial photographs of the ship “Roussos”, while it was docked in Lebanese territorial waters on different dates since its entry on November 21, 2013, since it appears that the ship was transported several times within the sea basin to and beyond the port of Beirut. Note that, according to the law, ships carrying explosives or dangerous materials are obliged to anchor outside the port basins, from where entry is prohibited except with the approval of the port chief. The color of the roof of the boat differs from image to image. Sometimes the color appears white and sometimes red, indicating that the doors to the rooms were opening and closing. Sources revealed that there is a photo dated May 3, 2015, showing that the ship’s holds were filled with water, indicating that the decision to float the ship changed the decision to unload it. Former Minister Al-Sarraf has a collection of aerial photographs of the ship, which remained visible until March 23, 2018, despite the fact that it sank on February 18 of that year.
The Roussos ship was in Sidon before its docking in the port of Beirut.
The sources also mentioned that the data that former Defense Minister Al-Sarraf has indicated that the ship “Roussos” was in Sidon in June 2013, that is, months before it entered the port of Beirut and remained there under the pretext of its breakdown. The sources reveal that the cashier has questions that reinforce the conspiracy hypothesis to request the intervention of the Judicial Power to prevent the ship from leaving and then unloading its cargo. Here, it is assumed that the team that prepared the report according to which the decision was made to unload the cargo from the ship, must be held accountable, and the person who informed the judiciary that the damage to “Roussos” prevents it from being allowed . navigate, although this is not proven, it is assumed. It should be noted that, in addition to the private information of the cashier, the latter carried out a detailed study related to the port of Beirut and the passage of the ship. The cashier stops when he informs the National Agency for Trade and Maritime Transport, which indicated that the ship will enter a state of “transit”, but did not mention in his letter that he had come to unload seismic lifting mechanisms to transport it to Aqaba in Jordan . . He also stops to change the ship’s captain, revealing that a number of transactions sent to the port administration were recorded in the name of former captain Abakumug Vyashkiv, noting that Captain Bruchkiv Boris received the ship in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. The cashier also relies on Decision 1/31 issued on January 26, 1966, regarding the regime of ports and harbors, to conclude that hazardous materials are transported to army warehouses if they are imported, but there is no relationship with the army if the materials are in a state of transit, while confirming that the dangerous cargo already prevents the ship from entering the marine basin.
The cashier also refers to the fire that broke out in hangar No. 12 before it caused the ammonium nitrate explosion, in addition to the suspicions in the statements of several officials in charge of port security, regarding the absence of records proving the granting of security permits to people who were entering the Beirut seaport campus, noting that this is not all that is in the pocket of Minister Sarraf, whose sources familiar with the investigation reveal that the judicial investigator is about to summon you soon to hear what you have information.
On the other hand, the French investigators did not send their final report on the Beirut port explosion, although it was expected by the end of last February. The judicial investigator listened yesterday to the former Director General of Customs, Shafiq Mari, and the Director General of Badri Daher, after hearing last week the Director General of Land and Maritime Transport Abdul Hafeez Al-Qaisi and the director of the port. at the port, Muhammad Al-Mawla. Al-Bitar had also questioned the officers arrested in the case, including the Major of the State Security Service, Joseph Al-Naddaf, the Army Intelligence Brigadier General Antoine Salloum, the two leaders of the General Security, Daoud Fayyad and Charbel Fawaz, as well as the general director of the port, the director of operations, the head of the merchandise department, the person in charge of the pavilions and the director of the guard within the campus. It should be noted that there is information that the judicial investigator will soon make decisions to agree to the release of aggrieved detainees and others who have exhausted the period of detention they deserve according to the scope of their responsibility.
