[ad_1]
Beirut – The judicial investigator in the Beirut port bombing case called on Parliament to investigate current and former ministers on suspicion of committing violations or crimes related to the disaster in the Lebanese capital, a judicial source reported Tuesday. .
On August 4, the port of Beirut witnessed a massive explosion of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, leaving more than two hundred people dead and thousands injured and destroying much of the capital.
The government resigned due to the explosion, but is still in business for not forming a new government yet.
The judicial source pointed out that the judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, wrote a letter to Parliament, informing him that the investigations he carried out with current and former ministers have thrown up certain suspicions about the responsibility of these ministers and their failure to comply with the presence of nitrate. of ammonia in the port.
The source confirmed that Judge Sawan asked Parliament to carry out investigations with the Minister of Works of the provisional government, Michel Najjar, and his predecessors, Youssef Fenianos, Ghazi Al-Aridi and Ghazi Zaiter, the Minister of Finance of the provisional government, Ghazi Wazna and his predecessor Ali Hassan Khalil, and the Minister of Justice in the provisional government, Marie-Claudeker. Najm and his predecessors Ashraf Rifi, Saleem Jreissati and Albert Sarhan, considering that the prosecution of ministers is exclusively entrusted to the Supreme Council to try presidents and ministers.
Sawan’s book addressed to the Lebanese Parliament comes after a review prepared by the Public Ministry of Cassation, in which it considered that prosecuting ministers for violations or possible crimes committed during their ministerial functions is the competence of the Supreme Council to judge presidents and ministers, based on previous cases in which the Judiciary suspended the trial of ministers for lack of competence. .
The judicial investigator’s book did not bring any accusations to the ministers, but highlighted the need for the House of Representatives to decide what it deems appropriate for them, after Sawan decided to take the burden off his back under the weight of popular pressure, and place the responsibility in Parliament.
By asking the judicial investigator to hold the Chamber of Deputies accountable and do what he deems appropriate against the ministers who have triumphed in the ministries of justice, finance and works, it seems that there is a suspicion of negligence on their part that led to nitrate leaving of ammonia in the port for years. While the Council cannot take this step for various reasons, the request remains in the framework of shirking responsibility and throwing the ball on Parliament’s court.
Parliament is the seat of the Supreme Council to judge presidents and ministers, in accordance with two articles of the constitution, according to which article 70 establishes that “The Council of Representatives can accuse the Prime Minister and the ministers of committing high treason or violate their functions. The Council ”, says article 71,“ The accused minister will be tried before the Supreme Council to judge presidents and ministers ”.
After Lebanese authorities rejected requests for an international investigation into the blast, they opened a local investigation, which has so far led to the arrest of 25 people, including customs and port officials.
French experts and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation participated in the preliminary investigations.
Judicial sources had revealed that Lebanon had received the report from the American experts, but was still awaiting the report from the French experts.
The Beirut Bar Association filed hundreds of cases with its agency for victims of the port explosion.
