The magistrate reopened the investigation on Monday after thirteen months of blocking. The Attorney General, Ghassan Oueidate, charged him in return for “rebellion against justice” and “usurpation of power” and released the seventeen detained persons.
by Hélène Sallon (Beirut, correspondent)
Before the courthouse, relatives of the victims of the explosion of August 4, 2020 in the port of Beirut, supported by a handful of activists and around twenty opposition deputies, let their anger burst on Thursday January 26. “We are sad but we will not let them bury the investigation. We want justice!” Claims Nohad Abdo, holding a photo of his nephew Jack Bazikian, killed at the age of 31. All are united behind “their” judge, the stubborn Tarek Bitar, which reopened the investigation, Monday 23, after thirteen months of blocking, ignoring the recusation appeals that aim. They conspire the decision of the Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, Ghassan Oueidate, to instill it in return for “rebellion against justice” and “usurpation of power”, and to release the seventeen people detained since the explosion.
The battle between the two judges is far from procedural. The decision of the Oueidate judge, denounced as a “political, security and judicial coup” by the families of the victims, and disputed in its legality by experts, threatens to definitively obstruct the investigation. “Many judges in Lebanon represent political parties and there are a lot of interference in justice, comments Nizar Saghieh, the director of the Legal Agenda NGO. It is a dispute between a judge who proved that he wanted Working independently and the public prosecutor who is attentive to politicians and strongest. The latter did not cooperate to find the evidence and hear the accused. Leaving the judges on the front line is less expensive for politicians . “
Honen by a majority of Lebanese for its role in the economic sinking of Lebanon, the caste in power tries to escape its responsibilities in the tragedy of August 4. Former ministers, port officials, and now security officials and magistrates including … Judge Oueidate himself, are prosecuted by Judge Bitar for “voluntary homicide” for having left the port, without precaution, during Years, several hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrate, whose explosion left 218 dead. Politicians have invoked parliamentary immunity to refuse to be heard. The Hezbollah Shiite movement took the lead of a campaign aimed at dismissing the judge. Direct threats have been sent to him. Families of victims have been intimidated to dissociate themselves from the magistrate.
“Aberration”
The investigation has been suspended since December 2021, around forty remedies in the judge. “The General Assembly of the Court of Cassation is not able to decide them for lack of quorum or, political leaders refuse to sign the appointment decrees …”, specifies Nizar Saghieh. The subterfuge served as other corruption cases and that aimed at the governor of the Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salamé, adds the lawyer who denounces “the aberration of an increasingly close system for total impunity”. Judge Bitar, consequently, could not communicate elements of the file to the two French magistrates who met him in Beirut on January 18. An investigation was opened in France after the death of two French people in the explosion.
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