Lebanon’s Aoun urges indictment over 2020 blast

BEIRUT

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun yesterday urged the judiciary to issue a long-awaited indictment over the 2020 Beirut port blast, on the eve of the catastrophe’s sixth anniversary.

“The issuing of the indictment by the investigating judge has become a necessity that can no longer be delayed,” Aoun said in a statement.

The massive Beirut port explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, killed more than 220 people, injured more that 6,500 and damaged swathes of the capital.

Lebanese authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

Nobody has been held accountable for the disaster, with victims and their families still demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity.

Justice “means upholding rights, revealing the whole truth without any omission, and holding accountable” all those who were negligent or caused the catastrophe “whatever their position,” Aoun said.

“The Lebanese judiciary is called today more than ever before to prove its independence and ability to deliver justice to the victims. The indictment is not just a legal procedure, but a right owed by the living to the martyrs and their families,” he added.

In March, a judicial official told AFP that judge Tarek Bitar had completed his probe involving some 70 defendants including politicians, security and military officials and civil servants.

He referred the case to the public prosecutor who was to study it, present his opinion and then refer it back to Bitar to issue the indictment.

The case, which is still with the public prosecutor, had been bogged down by political and legal wrangling since 2023, after Iran-backed Hezbollah led a campaign demanding Bitar’s removal and dozens of lawsuits also sought to remove him from the case.

However, Bitar resumed his investigations last year as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted and Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took office following a 2023-2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which weakened the group.

Since then, several legal impediments to Bitar’s work have also been removed, including the lifting of a travel ban against him.

Salam said on X that “there can be no settlement at the expense of justice, even if it is sometimes delayed.”

He vowed “no cover for any official, no matter their position, whether in the Beirut port explosion case or any other issue. Accountability will not spare anyone.”