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Beirut – Judge Fadi Sawan, judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion case, will hear in the coming days the testimonies of the Minister of Public Works and Transport in the interim government and the directors of two security services, as reported Tuesday a judicial source.
The huge explosion that rocked the port of Beirut on August 4 killed more than 190 people and injured more than 6,500. Some 300,000 inhabitants of the capital, whose homes were destroyed or damaged, have also been displaced.
The judicial source said that Sawan summoned Minister Michel Najjar and the Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, to hear their testimony on Thursday as witnesses, explaining that “if there is data or suspicions that any of them were negligent, he can be transferred to a defendant and interrogated in this capacity. “
According to the same source, Sawan also summoned the general director of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, to hear his testimony next Monday as a witness.
Sawan, who heard the statement from Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab last week, is investigating with senior officials responsible for managing the port and its security, with the aim of determining responsibilities, learning about the circumstances of the terrible explosion and identifying people. who neglected or ignored the danger of keeping large quantities of ammonium nitrate stored in the port.
On August 3, the day before the explosion that turned Beirut into a disaster, Najjar had received a letter drawn up by the Supreme Defense Council, which includes the leaders of all military and security services, regarding the presence of “a lot of ammonium nitrate used for explosives” in the port.
Najjar said days after the explosion that, upon receiving the message, he asked his adviser to contact the head of the port’s board of directors, Hassan Quraitem, who is currently suspended, to inquire, and asked him to send all the documents related to the case to the ministry, which is what happened, but the next day the explosion happened.
Authorities attributed the explosion as a consequence of its occurrence to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored in Pavilion No. 12 of the port six years ago, without adequate protection measures.
After the explosion, the State Security Agency announced that it had “informed the authorities of the danger of” these materials “, according to a detailed report, in which it warned of the occurrence of robberies from the hangar as a result of a large breach in the “south wall”.
Various media reports, documented by official documents, claim that the amount of ammonium nitrate that exploded is much less than 2,750 tons, as large amounts of (probably stolen) amber were found to have been mined over the past few years. This was one of the reasons that led the port authorities to repair the gap in the hangar.
On Thursday, the Army Command announced that it had uncapped the containers that were present at the customs service, which were found to contain “about 4 tons and 350 kg” of ammonium nitrate, which it later removed. It was not clear if this was part of the base amount.
Since receiving the dossier of the investigation into the blast, Sawan has arrested 25 people under notable arrest warrants, including Director General of Land and Maritime Transport Abdul Hafeez Al-Qaisi, Chairman of the Port Board of Directors, Hassan Quraitem , the Director General of Customs Badri Daher, and four officers. They also included three Syrian workers who, hours before the explosion, welded a gap in ward 12.
