No Top Officials to Be Indicted Over Beirut Blast: Sources

Date: 30 October 2020 - 21:45

News ID: ۸۴۲۹۵

Beirut (Al Jazeera) – The Lebanese investigator overseeing a probe into the August Beirut explosion that killed more than 200 people is winding down his investigation without accounting for the responsibilities of top-level political and security officials.
Judicial Investigator Fadi Sawan is waiting for the arrival of a report by French investigators within two weeks before he moves to the process of preparing an indictment, a senior judicial source told Al Jazeera. The indictment will draw from a pool of 25 people arrested in connection with the blast, including low- and mid-level administrative and security officials, the source said.
Those detained include current and former customs chiefs Badri Daher and Shafik Merhi, former port director Hassan Koraytem, Abdel Hafiz Kaissi, director of land and maritime transport at the public works ministry, which nominally oversees the port, and Anthony Salloum, head of military intelligence at the port.
A second judicial source said the charges include "willful negligence that led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians and injury of others”, and "causing massive destruction to public and private property”.
"The first charge means this was intentional negligence, in the sense that they knew the dangers and they either did nothing or were slow to do anything, even as all reports indicated this was an explosive substance,” the second source said.
The maximum sentence under these charges would be five years in prison, the source said.
Sawan had called in 48 people as "witnesses” throughout the investigation, including current and former ministers of public works, finance and justice, as well as the General Security Director Abbas Ibrahim and State Security Director Tony Saliba.
Official correspondence between various branches of government, the judiciary and security officials show the president, prime minister, top security officials, members of the judiciary and more than a half-dozen ministers knew the large amount of explosives were at Beirut’s port but failed to take action.
But none of these top officials is officially considered suspects in the crime.
Sawan has reportedly considered ministers and presidents outside his jurisdiction because of legal immunity – an interpretation that Saghieh said was "ludicrous”.
"Immunity applies to political acts carried out during time in office – not a massive explosion that destroys the capital city and kills hundreds. Where is the public interest in this?”