BEIRUT (AP) – Several relatives of the victims of the massive 2020 explosion at Beirut’s port showed up on Monday to answer questions by police after they were accused of rioting and vandalism during protests over the stalled investigation into the blast.
The rioting last week saw the relatives hurl rocks at the Beirut Justice Palace and burn tires outside the building.
The Aug. 4, 2020 explosion killed more than 215 people, injured 6,000 and devastated entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers, detonated in a port warehouse.
It later emerged the chemical was shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at the warehouse. A handful of senior political and security officials knew of its presence and the threat it imposed on the city but failed to take action to remove it.
Judge Tarek Bitar’s investigation into the disaster has been frozen since December 2021 after politicians he had charged in the case filed legal challenges to the probe. No one has been tried or convicted over the blast.
The families of the port blast victims have long campaigned for an uninterrupted investigation and have frequently protested and held monthly vigils. Some of the families and Lebanese activists, as well as human rights organizations have urged the United Nations to investigate the blast.
On Monday, 13 relatives of blast victims showed up to answer police summons over the rioting. As they were being questioned inside the police compound, hundreds of other relatives of the blast victims, activists, and some lawmakers protested outside and condemned the country’s ruling elite.
William Noun, who lost his brother firefighter Joe in the blast, has been an outspoken activist.
Some reformist lawmakers backing Bitar’s investigation and victims’ families were also at the protest.