BEIRUT: The Lebanese judge leading investigations into last year’s Beirut port blast was forced to stop work on Thursday over a lawsuit filed by ex-ministers he had summoned for interrogation, an official said.
The suspension is the fourth since Tarek Bitar was chosen to lead investigations in February.
It comes two weeks since Bitar was cleared to resume work, after a series of court challenges raised by political leaders derailed his efforts.
On Thursday, Bitar was informed of a lawsuit submitted by lawmakers Ghazi Zeaiter and Ali Hasan Khalil — both members of the Amal movement — which forced him to pause the probe until a ruling is issued, a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The total number of lawsuits against Bitar now stands at 18, the official said, most of which were filed by officials he is seeking to interrogate on suspicion of criminal negligence.
Rights groups and relatives of blast victims have repeatedly condemned what they have described as blatant political interference in the investigation.
They say it aims to preserve a culture of political impunity in a country where even assassinations and bombings can go unpunished.
The August 4, 2020 explosion was caused by a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that was stored haphazardly at Beirut port for years.
Top political and security officials knew of the dangers posed by the shipment but failed to take action.
The powerful movement Hezbollah is leading demands to remove Bitar.
Its ministers have said they will boycott cabinet sessions until an official decision is taken to replace him.
As a result, the government, which was formed in September to address an unprecedented economic crisis, has failed to meet since October, despite mounting woes.
WB PLEDGES $37M
Meanwhile, the World Bank on Thursday said it agreed with its partners to repurpose $37 million in funds to help Lebanon’s public school teachers survive a crushing economic crisis.
The World Bank and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would divert the money from the Lebanon Syrian Crisis Trust Fund, which aims to assist Lebanese communities accommodating Syrian refugees, the bank said in a statement.
It would be used to “provide financial incentives to public school teachers suffering from the severe economic and financial crisis in Lebanon to ensure they can purchase fuel to travel to work,” the statement added.
The “exceptional” financing, which is valid only for the 2021-2022 academic year, came at the request of Lebanon’s government, the bank said.
Lebanon, home to more than one million refugees from war-torn Syria, is grappling with an economic crisis that the World Bank has branded as one of the worst the world has seen in modern times.
More than 80 per cent of the population lives in poverty and the local currency, the pound, has lost 90 per cent of its value against the dollar on the black market.
Public school teachers who were already underpaid before the onset of the economic crisis two years ago have since been pushed deeper into poverty.
Their salaries in pounds are a fraction of what they used to be due to the currency’s rapid devaluation.
Many cannot afford to purchase fuel to go to work after the government gradually lifted subsidies causing the price of hydrocarbons to more than quadruple within a few months.
To fill a medium-sized vehicle’s tank, Lebanese motorists would now have to pay more than the monthly minimum wage of 675,000 pounds ($25). – AFP
