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Beirut (AFP)
The judicial investigator in the Beirut port bombing case, Fadi Sawan, testified Thursday against Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers for “negligence, negligence and causing death” and injuring hundreds of people, according to an AFP judicial source.
The Beirut port explosion on August 4 killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6,500. And it caused serious damage to the port and several neighborhoods of the capital, displacing tens of thousands of families from their homes that were damaged or destroyed.
Lebanese authorities are investigating the explosion, which was attributed to storing huge amounts of ammonium nitrate for years in a terminal block without preventive measures. It turned out that officials at various levels were aware of the dangers of storing them without lifting a finger.
A judicial source told Agence France-Presse that the judicial investigator charged Diab, former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and former Ministers of Public Works and Transport Ghazi Zuaiter and Youssef Fenianos, “after verifying that they had received several letters by written warning them not to postpone the maintenance of ammonium nitrate on the Beirut port campus, and no steps are taken to prevent the devastating explosion and its massive damage. “
The source indicated that the judicial investigator “informed the office of Prime Minister Hassan Diab about the content of the complaint, and informed him that next Monday he will go to the Government House to question him as a defendant, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law ”.
Investigative sessions are also scheduled for next week to “cross-examine” the three ministers as “accused.”
The four officials are the first politicians accused by the judicial investigator in the Al Marfa case, according to which at least 25 senior officials responsible for the management and security of the port were arrested.
This is the first official accusation against a prime minister in the exercise of his functions.
Diab’s government resigned due to the explosion, but is still in business for not forming a new government until now.
In the first comment on Sawan’s decision, Diab’s office stated that the latter “has a clear conscience and trusts in his clean hand and his responsible and transparent handling of the Beirut port explosion file.” He said Diab “is shocked by this target, which exceeds the person on the site … and will not allow the prime minister to be the target.”
The media office explained that Diab told Sawan his answer and “said what he has in this file”, emphasizing that he is “a man of institutions and respects the law and complies with the constitution,” which he accused Sawan of ” violate “and” bypass parliament. ”
After the explosion, it emerged that security services and various former and current officials were aware of the dangers of storing large quantities of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut.
On July 20, Diab and President Michel Aoun received a letter from the State Security Service about the “danger” posed by the presence of large quantities of this substance in the port.
The State Security Agency, which was investigating the stored materials, announced after the explosion that it had “informed the authorities of their danger.”
Diab, whom the judicial investigator heard in September, was the first to attribute the explosion immediately after its occurrence to 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in Pavilion No. 12 of the port six years ago.
– Neglect –
Since September, Washington has imposed sanctions on Khalil, who assumed the Ministry of Finance between 2014 and early 2020 and is also a deputy for the Amal Movement led by the President of Parliament Nabih Berri, and Fenianos, who held the Ministry of Works between 2016 and early 2020 and is affiliated with the Marada movement, for its support of Hezbollah and its involvement in Corruption.
Zuaiter served as Minister of Public Works between 2014 and 2016.
Last month, Sawan asked Parliament to investigate current and former ministers on suspicion of having committed violations or crimes related to the explosion, after a review prepared by the discriminatory Prosecutor’s Office, in which he considered that the persecution of the ministers for violations or possible crimes committed during the exercise of their ministerial functions is the competence of the Supreme Council for the Office of the Prosecutor for Presidents and Ministers.
The judicial source explained that Sawan, after Parliament refused to respond to his request, “accused Diab and the three ministers of criminal offenses that fall within their jurisdiction and jurisdiction, and separated from the political responsibility that was requested to the parliament to investigate. “
French and FBI investigators were involved in the initial investigations into the explosion.
More than a month ago, the Beirut Bar Association filed hundreds of criminal complaints with the Prosecutor’s Office for discrimination on behalf of those affected by the explosion.
The Beirut port explosion fueled the anger of the enraged Lebanese street against the entire political class, accusing it of corruption and negligence, and now holding it responsible for the explosion in addition to the accelerating economic collapse the country has witnessed for more than a year.
Political forces have yet to agree on the formation of a new government, despite efforts launched by French President Emmanuel Macron to help resolve the crisis in Lebanon.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was reassigned in October to form the government, has yet to complete his mission due to political divisions.
© 2020 AFP
