Hezbollah reportedly threatens Beirut explosion investigator
On the one year anniversary of the event in August this
year, Hezbollah’s leader called the investigation ‘politicised’.
Hezbollah security and liaison service head Wafiq Safa has
reportedly threatened Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the investigation into the
August 2020 Beirut port blast. The explosion devastated the Lebanese capital
killing at least 218 people, wounding about 7,000 and causing billions of
dollars in damage.
According to Lebanese news reports, Hezbollah’s Wafiq Safa
visited Public Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oweidat and the head of the Supreme
Judicial Council, Judge Suhail Abboud.
Although the reason for the visit was unknown, Safa
reportedly said: “Bitar’s performance has raised the ire (of Hezbollah) and we
will keep a close eye on his work until the end, and should he drift off the
course, we will remove him from his position.”
“It is fine, I do not care how they will remove me,” Bitar
said in response to the threat, according to Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation
reporter Edmond Sassine.
Bitar confirmed what was circulated in the Lebanese media
about the alleged threat.
Lebanon’s Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi was accused of
being aware of the reported threat to Bitar, however, he denied it by saying
that “security forces are doing their duty and the judge is doing his
duty."
The reports sparked outrage among the families of the
victims and they told Lebanese media that they would stand around Bitar’s house
to guard him.
Bitar has issued several arrest warrants in recent weeks
during the investigation, and questioned some former ministers and current MPs
including Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zeaiter, and Nohad Al-Machnouk about their
knowledge of the explosion.
Current parliamentarians were summoned for interrogations on
September 30 and October 1 by the judge.
Recently, Bitar issued an arrest warrant in absentia against
the former Minister of Public Works and Transport, Youssef Fenianos, “after his
refusal to appear before him for interrogation, despite being duly informed of
the date of the hearing.”
Sami Gemayel, the head of Lebabon’s Kataeb Party, holds
Hezbollah responsible for obstructing the investigation and stands against the
threats.
Hezbollah has been accused of storing ammonium nitrate in
the Beirut Port which caused one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions
last year.
Hezbollah’s Safa was
also sanctioned by the US in 2019 for using Lebanese ports to smuggle weapons
and illegal drugs on behalf of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah said on the one year
anniversary of the Beirut Port blast that the investigator of the blast was
politically biased.
"I am formally telling the family of the martyrs that
this judicial investigator is playing politics, this is a politicized
investigation," Nasrallah said.
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