Beirut Port Blast Investigation: What Will the Forensic Investigator Do?

Former Minister of Public Works Ghazi Zuaiter and former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil will not appear before the judicial investigator, Fadi Sawan. The two ministers are armed with their representatives to refuse to appear before a judge, who is accused by parliament of violating the constitution. In addition, until yesterday night they had not been informed of the date of the session, although judicial sources stated that the notification reached the General Secretariat of Parliament. Thus, the only cited remains as a witness, who is the former Army Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Walid Salman, who is cited for the first time, noting that he is the officer who signed the response of the army command to the request of Customs Directorate to make use of nitrates, proposing to offer ammonium nitrate to the explosives company Deacon so that it can buy it. That day, Salman signed by proxy on behalf of the former army commander, Jean Kahwaji, noting that the judicial investigator has yet to subpoena any of the former and current army commanders, despite the army’s heavy responsibility for security. of the port.

In conjunction with the expected interrogation session, the sources speak of an anticipated position of the organ of the House of Representatives regarding the insistence of the judicial investigator in summoning two deputies, which the parliament considered a violation of parliamentary immunity and a violation of the constitution by requesting to hear them as defendants during the normal contract of the House of Representatives. Al-Akhbar learned that the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, called the Bureau of Parliament to meet and ask the Attorney General for Cassation to contact Sawan to send all investigations into the port explosion file to the Council for review its content and take advantage of it to take the necessary measures, since presidents and ministers only appear before a judgment council. Presidents and ministers, not before the forensic investigator. Parliament wants the documents that created the suspicion to take over the investigation instead of the judicial investigator, especially since Sawan’s decision to prosecute Prime Minister Hassan Diab and several ministers began to take a dangerous political turn that led to the tension in the environment and the exchange of accusations, which led the political forces to unite against Sawwan’s decision. Sources close to Minister Gebran Bassil confirmed that “it has nothing to do with Sawan or with the prosecutor’s decision, neither close nor far.”

Diab did not respond to Sawan’s message and is waiting for what will result in Zaaiter and Khalil not showing up.

The sources also suggested that the defendants would request the Public Ministry of Cassation to remove the judicial investigator due to legitimate suspicions and doubts about the impartiality of the judicial investigator. As for the prime minister who received a request from the judicial investigator through the Presidency of the Government to set a date for the questioning as a defendant, Al-Akhbar learned that President Diab has not yet responded to the letter from the judicial investigator. The sources revealed that the Prime Minister is awaiting what will result from the lack of appearance of the deputies Zuaiter and Hassan Khalil today before the judicial investigator and before the Fenianos minister tomorrow Thursday, to base his position on it, especially since Diab can answer anytime before Friday.
In the context, the former Minister of Public Works, Youssef Fenianos, had gone to the Palace of Justice to attend the session in which he had been informed by the discriminatory public prosecutor Imad Qabalan, but he was surprised to be informed that the session was postponed without know the date of the session.

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