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Helicopter helps extinguish fire after explosion in Beirut port on August 4, 2020 afp_tickers
This content was published on February 18, 2021 – July 12:02,
(AFP)
The Lebanese Criminal Court of Cassation ceased the hand of the judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, from the investigations in the case of the horrible port explosion, in the context of the request of two former ministers, accused by Sawan, to transfer The case to another judge, a judicial source told AFP.
The source said: “The Criminal Court of Cassation headed by Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar decided to transfer the investigation file on the Beirut port explosion from Judge Sawan to another judge,” who has not yet been appointed, explaining that the decision was made despite the opposition of one of the members of the Commission.
Authorities are investigating the explosion, which they attributed to the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate for years in a port terminal without protective measures. The explosion killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others. Officials at various political, security and judicial levels were found to be aware of the dangers of storing them without picking up a finger.
On December 10, Sawan called in Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former Ministers, namely former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and former Labor Ministers Ghazi Zaiter and Youssef Fenianos, but none of them appeared before him at the sessions. . that he identified for questioning as “defendants.”
The prosecution raised the objection of the political parties, including Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Hezbollah, against the four officials.
Zuaiter and Khalil, close to the president of the parliament Nabih Berri, subsequently 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 deputies in Parliament, while they enjoy constitutional immunity and their prosecution is supposed to pass In the House of Representatives, according to opponents of the prosecution’s decision.
Sawan suspended the investigations for two months before resuming them last week, after the Court of Cassation returned the file to him, pending the determination of the request of the two ministers.
The Legal Notary, a non-governmental organization that is responsible for explaining the laws, explained at the time that “constitutional immunity includes the breach of the ministerial position and does not include the exploitation of this position, and therefore neither murder nor corruption.”
“Just because the ministers and the political class refuse to be held accountable, they set a red line for the investigation, and this is a very dangerous matter,” lawyer Nizar Saghieh, the newspaper’s executive director, told France Press on Thursday.
“It is a negative step,” he said, adding that “establishing red lines, which is a traditional issue in Lebanon, prevents justice from being done.”
Investigations into the explosion have so far not produced any announced results, despite the arrest of at least 25 people, including the highest officials responsible for managing the port and its security.
