Lebanese authorities, at the start of next week, will try to appoint a second judge to the stalled inquiry into the deadly August 2020 Beirut port blast, a move which is anticipated to further complicate the probe.
Judge Tarek Bitar's investigation into the 2020 explosion, which flattened swathes of the city when hundreds of tons of stored ammonium nitrate detonated, has been suspended since late 2021 by lawsuits brought by politicians whom he has sought to question.
Bitar has categorically rejected the decision to appoint a second judge.
Sources close to Bitar revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that he is “working on developing a legal study that would enable him to resume investigations regardless of the lawsuits filed against him.”
“Bitar will take a legal position in the interest of the investigation, and just as the other team fabricated legal jurisprudence to appoint an additional judicial investigator, he will adopt a jurisprudence in line with the law and allow the resumption of his work,” sources added.
According to the sources, who spoke under the conditions of anonymity, Bitar will seek exhausting all means of legal confrontation.
“If legal means are inaccessible, then Bitar may consider resignation,” sources explained.
Relatives of some of the victims of the massive explosion, which killed at least 218 people, on Wednesday protested the judiciary’s plan to appoint a new judge to the official investigation.
They denounced the move as an attempt by the country’s political class to avoid justice.
William Noun, whose brother died in the blast, said: “The families of the victims want the investigations to be conducted again. We also want Judge Bitar to carry out his duties away from the political rivalries.”
“Lawyers are studying the decision to appoint a new investigator, and its negative repercussions on the course of justice,” a prominent lawyer told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“After more than two years of effort and fatigue, we will not accept wasting the truth,” added the lawyer, who preferred to remain anonymous.
