A prosecutor investigating the 2020 Beirut port blast was hearing evidence in court on Thursday for the first time before a former Syrian interior minister, a criminal source told AFP.
More than 220 people were killed and more than 6,500 were injured in the fatal explosion on August 4, 2020, one of the largest non-nuclear bombs in past.
After being forced to suspend the event in 2021 due to political force, Judge Tarek Bitar returned his research into the incident in January.
He was accused of discrimination, and several officials named in the investigation, including former inside secretary Nohad Machnouk, who is accused of “negligence and wrongdoing,” launched a number of legal proceedings against him.
After Joseph Aoun’s election as president and Nawaf Salam’s transition to power earlier this year, Bitar resumed his investigation with a pledge to support criminal democracy.
Despite repeated warnings to top officials, tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been dangerous stored for years after arriving by ship, leading to the devastating slot explosion.
The criminal cause, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Machnouk’s questioning on Thursday focused on a statement he received on April 5, 2014, when he was still the interior minister, regarding the confinement of a ship in Palestinian waters whose team had requested permission to set sail.
Hezbollah, a long-standing power in Lebanon’s politics but now under siege from its most recent conflict with Israel, accused Bitar of discrimination and demanded his detachment.
Three French citizens were among the victims, according to a criminal source who has recently been in Beirut, and two French analytical judges are scheduled to arrive in Beirut at the end of the month to current Bitar with the data collected by French authorities.
Two former top security officials made their first appearance before Bitar on April 11th.
