Judge in Beirut port blast demands arrest of former minister

BEIRUT — The justice starring Lebanon’s probe into past year’s monolithic blast astatine Beirut’s larboard demanded connected Friday the apprehension of a erstwhile Cabinet curate helium had implicated successful the case, judicial officials said.

The improvement comes 3 days aft a Lebanese tribunal cleared the mode for Judge Tarek Bitar to resume his enactment connected the probe, pursuing a suspension that had lasted implicit a month. The probe was suspended due to the fact that of ineligible challenges filed by erstwhile officials the justice had implicated successful the case.

The August 2020 blast astatine Beirut’s larboard killed astatine slightest 216 people, injured thousands and devastated full neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital.

Bitar had issued an apprehension warrant successful October for erstwhile concern minister, Ali Hassan Khalil. On Friday, helium demanded the warrant beryllium implemented “immediately,” the judicial officials said. They spoke connected information of anonymity successful enactment with regulations.

Last month, Lebanon’s constabulary main said helium could not transportation retired a akin warrant since Khalil arsenic a lawmaker enjoys parliamentary immunity from prosecution.

Khalil is simply a adjacent adjutant to almighty Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, allied with Lebanon’s almighty Hezbollah militant group. Both Berri and Hezbollah person demanded that Bitar beryllium removed, citing alleged bias.

In the 2020 explosion, hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive worldly utilized successful fertilizers, had been improperly stored successful Beirut’s larboard for years, with evident anterior cognition of galore of the country’s apical leaders.

More than a twelvemonth aft the authorities launched a judicial investigation, astir everything other remains chartless — from who ordered the shipment to wherefore officials ignored repeated warnings of the danger.

Bitar had charged Khalil and 3 different erstwhile elder authorities officials with intentional sidesplitting and negligence that led to the deaths of scores of radical successful the larboard explosion.

It was not instantly wide if Khalil volition beryllium arrested.

The probe into the larboard detonation was suspended successful November for the 3rd time, owed to a deluge of ineligible challenges filed by those accused. Several officials, including Khalil, person refused to beryllium questioned.

Disagreements implicit Bitar’s enactment among rival Lebanese governmental groups person paralyzed the government, which has not held a gathering since mid-October.