The lead investigator into the Beirut port blast, Judge Fadi Sawwan, paused for ten days the investigation into the case following requests by the defendants to transfer the file to a different judge.
A judicial source said that two ex-ministers charged in the case have asked authorities to move the file to a different judge.
Last week, Sawwan, probing last summer’s port explosion in Beirut, filed charges against caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Zoaiter and Youssef Fenianos, both former ministers of public works, accusing them of negligence that led to the death of hundreds of people.
Protesters Rally to Press Sawwan to Continue Port Blast Probe naharnet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from naharnet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Former justice minister and ex-Internal Security Forces head Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said Thursday that he has testified before Judge Fadi Sawwan that Iran had sent the ammonium nitrate shipment that eventually caused the August 4 catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port.
“As I said in my testimony before Judicial Investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan, I reiterate that the ammonium nitrates were sent to Lebanon by the Iranian revolutionary guard for the benefit of Hizbullah,” Rifi said in a statement.
The statement comes in response to a lawsuit filed against him by the Gathering of Hizbullah’s Lawyers. The lawsuit accuses Rifi of “incitement, stirring discord and jeopardizing civil peace” in connection with similar accusations he made in the wake of the blast.
Maj. General Ashraf Rifi
Former justice minister and retired Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi revealed Thursday that he has testified before Judge Fadi Sawwan that Iran had sent the ammonium nitrate shipment that eventually caused the August 4 catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port.
He urged in a statement Judge Sawan to publish his testimony publicly : “Today I call on Judge Sawwan to publish my testimony publicly and I tell Hezbollah not to think that it has managed to limit the probe into the crime of the century at the port to some officials who knew of the presence of the ammonium bomb but remained silent.”
Macron Plans to Visit Lebanon to Help Break The Weekslong War of Words Standoff Published December 16th, 2020 - 07:12 GMT
French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he attends a meeting with members of the Citizens Convention on Climate (CCC) about their proposals to fight against global warming, in Paris on December 14, 2020. Thibault Camus / POOL / AFP
Highlights
“With no chance to resolve the Cabinet crisis internally, Lebanese popular and political attention is focused on President Macron’s visit to Beirut next week in the hope it will help achieve a breakthrough in the government formation gridlock,” the source
With the Cabinet formation process hitting a dead-end after the eruption of a “war of words” between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, reflecting wide differences over the makeup of a new government, attention is focused on a new visit to Lebanon by French President Emmanuel Macron next week to help break the weekslo