This is what the “New York Times” revealed about the port explosion

The New York Times revealed that, “4 months after the Beirut port attack, influential officials and politicians in Lebanon are trying to prevent the investigating judge from questioning and holding top officials accountable.”

The newspaper emphasized that “the explosion, which killed 200 people, injured thousands and damaged billions of dollars, was the clearest example yet of the grave dangers posed by chronic corruption and mismanagement left to the Lebanese. in a state of dysfunction, poor services and a collapsed economy. “

A broad coalition of angry citizens have described the explosion as a watershed moment that could lead to real change in the way Lebanon is governed and break the culture of impunity that has long protected politicians from accountability. But they face fierce resistance from a political elite determined to preserve their powers.

“This explosion was a milestone in Lebanon’s history,” said Nizar Saghieh, director of the Legal Agenda. “It’s not just about the explosion, it’s the whole system. If we fail in this battle, we won’t be able to hold anyone responsible for the collapse of the country.”

The Prime Minister of the interim government, Hassan Diab, promised to carry out a thorough investigation, and the task was entrusted to Judge Fadi Sawan, 60, and one of his aides said that he “began to investigate the case under difficult circumstances, as he They assigned a small windowless office in the Palace of Justice. Your team consists of just two employees who take notes manually.

The judge’s job is not to determine the cause of the explosion, but also to look for evidence of crimes related to the arrival of the ship that brought the chemicals to Beirut in 2013, and the decision to store them in port and deal with them ever since.

That mission put the judge on a collision course with powerful personalities, and documents obtained by The New York Times and other outlets after the blast showed that a group of senior officials had been warned about ammonium nitrate, including the president, the prime minister, the head of the army and various judges and ministers, and he ruled. To eliminate or protect them.

This month, Judge Sawan urged the political establishment to accuse four powerful politicians of criminal negligence that sparked the blast, led by Hassan Diab, who resigned from his government after the blast but continued to do business, and two former Public Works ministers. who supervised the port. And a former finance minister who ran the customs service.

Almost immediately, a group of political forces met to accuse the judge of exceeding his limits. Hezbollah accused him of “political attack”, and Saad Hariri, the prime minister in charge of forming the new government, met with a statement of solidarity against what he called “a clear and flagrant violation of the constitution.”

So far, none of the new defendants have been questioned, two of them said they have parliamentary immunity and have asked the court to replace the judge.

In a further escalation of the judge’s challenge, Acting Interior Minister Mohamed Fahmy said last week that he would not ask the security forces to arrest the accused ministers, even if arrest warrants were issued against them.

Judge Sawan had questioned about 80 people before last week and charged half of them with crimes, and 25 suspects were arrested, most of them low to medium level in ports, customs and security employees, and the judge also submitted arrest requests to the International Interpol Police Organization regarding the owner of the Cypriot ship and the Russian captain. He requested information from Mozambique, Belgium, Great Britain and other countries.