Oueidat denies Bitar removal on agenda of Higher Judicial Council

State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat has denied that the Higher Judicial Council would discuss removing Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar from his post in the meeting that it will hold on Thursday.

In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Oueidat also said that he does not rule out that Bitar might “commit a lot of legal violations in the coming days, including the issuance of an in-absentia arrest warrant” against him and other judges.

“The appointment of an alternate investigative judge has become something of the past and the (Higher) Judicial Council will discuss the content of the Justice Minister memo, in which he requested looking into the legality of the measures that were taken by Bitar over the past hours,” Oueidat added.

Later on Thursday, Oueidat issued a memo forbidding the reception of “any decision, notice or document from Judge Tarek Bitar, seeing as he is recused."