Lebanon’s Military Judiciary Takes Over Investigations Into Port Explosion

 A man is seen at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 8, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
A man is seen at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 8, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
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Lebanon’s Military Judiciary Takes Over Investigations Into Port Explosion

 A man is seen at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 8, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
A man is seen at the site of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area, Lebanon August 8, 2020. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

The Military Court received the investigation case in the Beirut port explosion to conduct interrogations and issue arrest warrants against the suspects, until a forensic investigator is appointed over the matter and the case is returned to the Judicial Council.

In parallel, the State Prosecution gave instructions to the security forces to handover the detainees who are held pending investigation, to be referred to the Government Commissioner to the Military Court, Judge Fadi Akiki, to press charges against them and refer them to the Military Investigation Judge for questioning.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the military court received the case and that Akiki began studying the preliminary investigations and would press charges against the detainees and all the individuals who would be found involved, whether premeditatedly or due to their negligence.

Judicial sources also told Asharq Al-Awsat that the military judiciary investigations were temporary until a judicial investigator is appointed after the resigned government decided to refer the case to the Judicial Council.

While sources believed that the referral to the Judicial Council was aimed at blocking the way to the demands for an international investigation committee, which is rejected by the President Michel Aoun and Hezbollah, other observers noted that the Council taking over the issue would mean that the case was a “threat to the country’s internal security a disruption of civil peace.”



Erdogan Expects Support from Syria in Türkiye's Battle with PKK

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria October 20, 2021. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria October 20, 2021. (Reuters)
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Erdogan Expects Support from Syria in Türkiye's Battle with PKK

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria October 20, 2021. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria October 20, 2021. (Reuters)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Syria's new leadership is determined to root out separatists there, as Ankara said its military had "neutralized" 32 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in the country.

A rebellion by groups close to Türkiye ousted Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad last month. Since then, Türkiye-backed Syrian forces have occasionally clashed in the north with US-backed Kurdish forces that Ankara deems terrorists.

"With the revolution in Syria... the hopes of the separatist terrorist organization hit a wall," Erdogan told his party's provincial congress in Trabzon.

"The new administration in Syria is showing an extremely determined stance in preserving the country's territorial integrity and unitary structure," he said.

"The end of the terrorist organization is near. There is no option left other than to surrender their weapons, abandon terrorism, and dissolve the organization. They will face Türkiye's iron fist," Erdogan added.

The defense ministry separately announced the armed forces' operation in northern Syria that it said had "neutralized" - a term that usually means killed - the 32 PKK members. It said Türkiye's military had also "neutralized" four PKK members in northern Iraq, where the militants are based.