How a feud between rival judges symbolises Lebanon s fractious politics thenationalnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenationalnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
February 20, 2021 10:20:38 am
The Lebanese Criminal Court of Cassation decided on Thursday to remove Judge Fadi Sawan from the high-profile case of Beirut’s August 4 explosion. Sawan was appointed by the Higher Judicial Council (HJC), a 10-judge panel appointed by the country’s ruling class, as a judicial investigator, on the recommendation of the Caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem.
In December 10 Sawan pressed charges against the outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, and former Ministers of Public Works Ghazi Zeaiter and Youssef Fenianos, for negligence and causing death and harm to hundreds of people.
The case involves the unsafe storage of 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate for almost seven years at the Port of Beirut. Multiple Lebanese administrative and political officials were aware of the presence of the stockpile of ammonium nitrate but failed to remove it. This failure led to one of the largest non-n
Why Lebanese politicians turned on Beirut blast judge Fadi Sawan thenationalnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenationalnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Share:
The judge investigating the Beirut port explosion has charged Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence over the blast that killed 200 people and devastated swathes of the capital.
A picture taken on 9 August 2020, shows graffiti on the wall of a bridge overlooking the port of Beirut, the site of the explosion which killed at least 200 people , injured 6500 and left 300, 000 homeless after 2,750 Tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate Exploded . They were stored there for nearly 7 years. The shelf life of the product is supposed to be 6 months according to experts . After 6 months it starts solidifying and becomes more explodable . President Michel Aoun and PM Diab knew about the Ammonium Nitrate 2 weeks before the explosion but did nothing about it . Judge Fadi Sawan who is in charge of the investigation charged Diab , former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and former public works ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Youssef