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Beirut, Lebanon- A lawyer for a former Lebanese minister has filed a legal request to remove the judge investigating the Beirut port bombing case on the grounds of “legitimate suspicion.”
The petition from Youssef Fenianos, the former Minister of Public Works, was issued on Wednesday. A week ago, Judge Tarek Bitar sent a petition to Fenianos, who refused to appear in court for questioning. warrant.
Fegnanos said in a statement that the issuance of the arrest warrant was “illegal” and accused Bitar of “abnormal behavior” and “double standards” during the investigation.
“I assure you that I assume my administrative responsibility,” Fegnanos said.
“I feel very painful to the families of the victims, as if I were one of them, especially what they lost is irreparable in this world, but only the truth can heal the wound.”
On August 11, 2020, after a huge explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, a man stands next to graffiti in the damaged port area [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters]On August 4, 2020, an explosion in Beirut killed more than 200 people. A large amount of ammonium nitrate stored in the port unsafe for many years was detonated.
Approximately 6,500 people were injured and entire neighborhoods in the Lebanese capital were destroyed.
The explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record and the single most destructive event in the country’s turbulent history.
Earlier this week, a senior Hezbollah security official also threatened Bitar during a face-to-face meeting in the judge’s office.
Fegnanos was one of the few former ministers and senior security official Bitar accused of criminal negligence in early July, but he refused to appear in court for questioning.
Others include former prime minister Hassan Diab, former interior minister Nohad Mahnuk and former public works minister Gazi Zet.
Bitar also filed charges against former Army Commander General Jean Kavaji and former Military Intelligence Director Brigadier General Camille Dahel, as well as two other retired intelligence generals.
‘Play politics’
Fenianos’ legal complaint on the grounds of “legitimate suspicion” is similar to the complaint filed by former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeiter against Judge Bitar’s former Judge Fadi Sawan in December 2020.
The two accused Sawan of failing to conduct a fair investigation because his house was damaged in the explosion.
In February 2021, Sawan withdrew from the investigation.
Lebanon’s ruling party criticized Bitar for targeting senior political officials.
On the first anniversary of the explosion, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah accused Bitar of “playing with politics”.
Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian also condemned Bitar for summoning former Prime Minister Diab, calling the move “condemned.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW), legal activists and families of bomb victims accused Lebanese political officials of obstructing investigations and fearing “complete impunity.”
Aya Majzoub, a Lebanese researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the country’s “just future” is at stake, adding that Lebanon’s political leaders have “escaped” by placing loyalists in the judiciary during decades of corruption and other crimes. Responsibility”.
“So far, Judge Bitar has refused to operate within the narrow limits set by the political class, so he poses a huge threat to the culture of impunity enjoyed by Lebanese politicians for a long time,” Mayizub told Al Jazeera.
“Will senior officials once again escape accountability for their serious crimes, or will Judge Bitar prove that no one can be above the law?”
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