Beirut (agencies)
Yesterday, the Lebanese judiciary rejected four lawsuits filed by officials against the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, according to a judicial source, which means that it is now able to resume the investigation into the explosion in the port of Beirut after a three-week hiatus.
The source said: The General Authority of the Court of Cassation rejected the two lawsuits submitted by former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and Representative Nohad Al-Machnouk, to quarrel with the state over the grave mistakes Bitar committed against them.
And it considered that the latter did not commit any mistake that necessitates the state’s prosecution, and obligated Diab and Al-Machnouk to pay one million pounds to the state in compensation for damage and failure. The authority also rejected a lawsuit against the state submitted by MPs Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zuaiter, obligating each of them to pay one million pounds in compensation for damage to the state.
For its part, the Criminal Court of Cassation rejected a lawsuit filed by former Minister Youssef Fenianos, against whom an arrest warrant was issued, requesting that the file of the explosion in the port of Beirut be transferred from the custody of Al-Bitar due to legitimate suspicion.
The five officials are among the defendants in the Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 215 people and injured more than 6,500, in addition to extensive destruction in the port and neighborhoods of the capital.
Once he is informed of the decisions to dismiss the cases, Al-Bitar can resume the investigation suspended since the fourth of this month.
Meanwhile, 3 female judges submitted their resignations from their positions, in protest against the increase in the pace of political interference, which has recently hindered the work of the judiciary in Lebanon, most notably the investigation into the explosion in the port of Beirut, according to a judicial source yesterday.
The judicial source said that the three female judges submitted their resignations yesterday, “to protest the difficult situation that the judiciary has reached, political interference in the work of the judiciary, and questioning the decisions issued by judges and courts in most cases,” especially the port explosion.
The investigation into the port explosion was plunged into the labyrinths of politics, and then into judicial chaos. Since receiving the investigation about a year ago, 16 lawsuits have been pursued by the judicial investigator, Tariq Bitar, before various courts, demanding that he stop his hand and transfer the case to another judge, and led to the suspension of the investigation several times.
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