The families of the victims of the Beirut port explosion warned against procrastinating in the investigation, refusing to obstruct the course of justice in the case, in a sit-in in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, during which they succeeded in entering its inner courtyard after a stampede with the security forces, where they met the President of the Supreme Judicial Council and the first president of the Courts of Cassation, Judge Sohail Abboud.
The people refused to leave the Palace of Justice before obtaining a clear answer from the judiciary about his work in the coming days with regard to deciding on requests for response. The official “National Agency” reported that a delegation of the families of the victims and activists met with Judge Suhail Abboud, who promised to continue the work of Judge Rola Al-Masry to decide on this decision, explaining that “she did not take a decision to respond, accepting or rejecting, because she continued her study of the file with care and care.”
The families of the victims of the port explosion began their sit-in in the morning in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, and raised banners and Lebanese flags and pictures of the victims and closed the entrances to the Palace of Justice, calling for “support of justice and expediting the processing of response requests that obstruct the course of the investigation and the path of justice, and support for the judicial investigator Judge Tariq Al-Bitar to resume his work and investigations after He stopped his hand for a period of two months due to the lack of response to requests.” They also called on the President of the Second Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Judge Rola Al-Masry, “not to dilute their case through the delay in deciding on this issue,” which so far leads to the suspension of Judge Al-Bitar’s work.
William Noun, the brother of one of the victims, said in a statement to the “National Agency”, that “there is a request for a response against Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, and Judge Rola Al-Masry did not come to decide on this issue,” noting that “she was supposed to decide on this matter since A week, and until today, she did not attend, which confirms the dilution of dealing with this issue, and this is totally unacceptable by the families of the martyrs.”
In turn, activist and journalist Samir Skaf pointed out that “the judicial investigation continues to dilute, and this is unjustified and acceptable, because the handling of the urgent and ordinary judiciary with the investigation case is less than normal, as if it was an unimportant file that extended to the destruction of a third of Beirut and more than 200 martyrs and thousands of wounded and destruction. property, interests, etc., and this is rejected.”
He said: “We stand with the families of the victims and ask the whole judiciary to facilitate the investigation, and we have a fear of losing justice and the truth and fear of stopping the hand of Judge Al-Bitar, who has been suspended for two months from working on the file, and fear of hitting the investigation.”
The people’s move comes in light of the continued obstruction of the investigation and the stifling of Judge Al-Bitar’s work through the political pressures he is subjected to, especially through the so-called response requests submitted by MPs and former ministers with the aim of stopping his hand. The response requests led to the arrest of his work, which happened several times, most recently as a result of a lawsuit against the state submitted by former Minister Youssef Fenianos, because of what he called “grave mistakes” committed by Al-Bitar, against the background of the prosecution and the issuance of an arrest warrant in absentia against him, and the second before the Civil Court of Cassation headed by Judge Rola Al-Masry, who is charged with examining the case for the response of the President of the First Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Judge Naji Eid, who is entrusted with deciding the case for the dismissal of Judge Al-Bitar.