PNN – Five years after the devastating Beirut port explosion, the case continues to follow a politicized path, and the hope of the victims’ families for discovering the truth and serving justice continues to diminish.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, quoting Al-Akhbar newspaper, five years have passed since the horrific Beirut port explosion, but the fate of the case and its perpetrators is still unclear, and one of the most controversial points in the related investigations is the failure to prosecute or even summon officials who, according to the available evidence, were involved in the explosion.
At 18:07 on August 4, 2020, the massive Beirut Port explosion occurred, resembling a fiery earthquake, leaving widespread destruction and unending anger among grieving families. Five years after the tragedy, the truth is still unclear.
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Beirut Port Explosion Investigation Resumes amid Widespread Legal Controversy
After repeated interruptions in the Beirut explosion investigation process due to widespread protests against Tariq Al-Baytar, the judge in the case who had been dealing with the Beirut explosion case in line with the positions of the West and the Americans from the beginning, the investigation into the explosion was finally resumed. Despite ongoing legal challenges to Judge Al-Beitar’s authority, especially after the Lebanese Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against him, Al-Beitar continues to work on the Beirut explosion case, even though Lebanese legal circles insist that Judge Al-Beitar lacks solid legal authority to proceed with the case.
The Committee of Families of the Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion announced in its new statement that Judge Al-Beitar is the subject of anger and complaints from the victims’ families due to the delay in achieving justice and truth, and that he did not apply the same standards in a case of such magnitude.
As we said, one of the most controversial points in the investigation into the port explosion is the failure to prosecute and summon the officials and figures who appear to have been involved in the explosion. The Committee of Victims’ Families presented documents proving that former Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi was aware of the nitrate shipment at Beirut Port and yet was not summoned. Similarly, Raymond Khoury, the head of Lebanese Customs, was summoned four years later despite documents proving his responsibility in the Beirut Port explosion.
Catastrophic Negligences in the Beirut Explosion Case
On the other hand, the investigation into the Beirut port explosion has not yet covered key aspects related to international oversight, including why UNIFIL forces allowed a ship carrying ammonium nitrate to enter Beirut port despite knowing that it was a dangerous explosive. UNIFIL announced that the nitrate shipment had been inspected by the Lebanese Army, and the army granted permission for it to enter the port.
The Committee of Families of the Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion held UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army Intelligence Service responsible for this negligence.
The documentary “The Truth Narrative,” produced by Al-Mayadeen Network to reconstruct the narrative of what happened in the Beirut Port explosion largely reveals the various dimensions of the explosion. The Committee of Families of the Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion reported that it made extensive use of the documentary and collected approximately 120 documents and security and legal information. The committee also obtained research from the FBI and Lebanese and European security agencies, including the French and German intelligence services, and these documents were used to uncover detailed details about the nitrate shipment and the parties who were aware of its presence at the port.
The truth about the terrible Beirut explosion
According to the documentary Truth Telling, which recounts the events surrounding the Beirut Port Explosion, many facts regarding the arrival of the ship “Rhoss” at the port in 2013, carrying 2,750 tons of aluminum nitrates en route from Georgia to Mozambique, remain hidden.
The documents show that the Rhusus, chartered by the British company Savaru, developed serious defects in 2014, prompting the Lebanese Maritime Administration to recommend that the ship leave port immediately. However, financial obstacles prevented this and the ship docked at Pier 9 of Beirut Port. On October 21, 2014, Ziad Shaaban, a Lebanese justice official, went to the port of Beirut to inspect the ship Roussos. Hassan Qaraytam, then head of the Beirut Port Authority, informed him that due to the presence of hazardous materials on board, the hold needed to be ventilated and the areas around the ship evacuated. According to this information, the shipment of ammonium nitrate was transferred to Hangar 12 around the port of Beirut on October 27, 2014, despite numerous warnings that this quantity of explosives was being stored in an unprepared facility.
In parallel, the documents also revealed a series of correspondence between the explosives supplier, the Savaru ship, and the importing company, as well as their representatives in Lebanon, who were trying to clear or re-export the cargo that caused the explosion at the port of Beirut. After more than a year, the parties were informed that the cargo was damaged and legal action regarding it was suspended, with full responsibility for anything that happened resting with the Lebanese authorities.
In 2015, Najib Merei, the director of the Lebanese Transport Company, sent a letter to Jad Maalouf, one of Lebanon’s most experienced judges in emergency affairs, suggesting that the cargo should be handed over to the army because it was dangerous. Later in 2016, the army command asked customs to analyze a sample of the explosives stored at the port. Then Sami Hussein, the then head of customs control, repeated his proposal to hand over the nitrates to the army or re-export them to prevent a possible disaster, and the director general of customs in turn wrote to the judiciary to follow up on the ammonium nitrate case. But despite all this, the dangerous cargo of explosives remained in place in deadly silence.
In 2018, during an inspection conducted by the Lebanese Security Forces’ anti-corruption team, these explosives were discovered at Beirut Port and reports were made of the risk of theft or fire, but none of the relevant Lebanese authorities took effective action. On June 3, 2020, then-Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab learned of the incident and expressed his desire to visit the port, but a security officer informed him that the nitrates were merely agricultural fertilizer and were not dangerous.
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Uncertainty among families of Beirut explosion victims
In the early days after the explosion, a group of families of the martyrs began meeting amidst the chaos and destruction to find answers about the fate of their loved ones. Then, the decision was made to form a single committee, and they appointed Ibrahim Hatit as the official spokesperson for this committee.
The committee’s first and most fundamental demand was clear: to hold accountable all those responsible for the arrival of the ammonium nitrate shipment in Lebanon until the explosion, from various presidents to prime ministers, ministers, security chiefs, and judges. However, over time, this demand no longer met with consensus, and divisions emerged within the ranks of the victims’ families.
Judge Al-Bitar and the Selectivity of Investigations
Ibrahim Hatit, spokesman for the Beirut Explosion Victims’ Families Committee, has repeatedly emphasized that the rift among these families regarding the explosion case actually began with Tariq Al-Baytar’s method of working, which was completely selective, summoning some officials in the explosion case and acquitting others, which contradicts the principle of comprehensive justice adopted by the Victims’ Families Committee.
Hatit emphasized: When I insisted that Judge Al-Bitar summon all the officials responsible for the explosion case, some families asked me not to do so because they believed that putting pressure on Judge Al-Bitar might undermine the investigation.
According to Ibrahim Hatit, one of the most prominent factors that deepened these differences was the efforts of some Lebanese political parties, especially the pro-Western Lebanese Forces party headed by Samir Geagea, who attempted to even participate in drafting statements by the Committee of Families of the Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion.
September 29, 2021; a defining turning point
Ibrahim Hatit announced that on September 29, 2021, a large rally was held in front of the Palace of Justice, which effectively broke the back of the Committee of Families of the Victims of the Beirut Port Explosion. Some parties linked to foreign agents had organized the demonstration, and thousands of people participated in it. After arriving at the protest site, I was surprised to see political slogans unrelated to the Beirut port explosion case, including slogans chanted in incitement against Hezbollah, and I was faced with two options: Either I continue and identify with these slogans or I step back to protect the justice process from becoming politicized. In the end, I chose the latter option and asked the crowd to stop chanting, but they also chanted against me personally.
After that, Ibrahim Hatit, along with a number of families of the Beirut explosion victims, left the square and issued a statement expressing their opposition to the demonstrations and the events that had taken place. The statement emphasized that such slogans would divert the case of the explosion from its true course and make it impossible to discover the truth and achieve justice forever.
Afterwards, the spokesperson for the Beirut Explosion Victims’ Families Committee called Judge Al-Beitar to tell him that the Beirut explosion case was stained with blood, and when he asked Al-Beitar why not all the officials were summoned, he replied that if we summon everyone, we would be caught between the two sides.
Ibrahim Hatit says: This response was the turning point that led me to resign from the committee because I realized that this approach would not lead to the truth. About 40 families of the victims also withdrew, and ultimately a real rift emerged among the families of the victims.
When will compensation for the Beirut port explosion be paid?
Despite the fact that more than 5 years have passed since the Beirut port explosion, the issue of compensation remains one of the most unresolved issues, shrouded in ambiguity and procrastination, and thousands of families were affected by this disaster.
In the midst of this situation, there is a clear principled position from the families of the victims; that they first want to understand the truth and see justice done, and are not satisfied with simply receiving compensation. It should be noted that the issue of compensation depends on the outcome of the indictment, and if the investigation concludes that the Beirut Port explosion was the result of sabotage, no compensation will be paid, but if the investigation proves that this happened due to welding carried out in Hangar 12 and the explosion was accidental, compensation should be paid to the families of the victims.
Beirut Port Explosion: A Painful Memory
The Beirut explosion on August 4, 2020 was not just an explosion that shook the capital; it was a day that broke Beirut’s heart. At 6:07 p.m., the Beirut Port explosion turned the city’s sky into a red cloud of fire and dust like a bolt of lightning. The explosion killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500, and displaced more than 300,000 from their homes.
Beirut was nothing like it was that night, its streets littered with shattered glass, bodies lying on the ground, and a sad and eerie silence. The explosion left a crater more than 40 meters deep, destroying the port, grain silos, and historic neighborhoods of Beirut. The material damage from the explosion exceeded $3 billion, and its indirect economic damage exceeded $15 billion.
But today, after 5 years, there is still no justice in the Beirut explosion case; it is as if time stopped at that moment. But the truth never dies and the voices of the victims never fade. The Beirut port explosion is like an open national wound in Lebanon that can only be healed by reaching the truth and bringing its perpetrators to justice.