Bitar questions ex-PM Hassan Diab in Beirut port blast case

Former prime minister Hassan Diab appeared Friday before Judge Tarek Bitar for interrogation in the case of the 2020 catastrophic blast at Beirut’s port.

Diab arrived from abroad for the questioning and he reportedly met with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, who “advised” him to appear before Bitar in order not to be accused of obstructing the investigation.

Former General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim and former State Security head Tony Saliba had been interrogated by Bitar earlier this month.

The August 4, 2020 explosion killed more than 220 people, injured some 6,500 and devastated swathes of Lebanon's capital.

Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored unsafely for years.

Nobody has been held responsible for the blast, one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions.

Bitar, who took up the case more than four years ago and resumed his investigation in January after a two-year pause, began legal proceedings in 2023.

Ibrahim and Saliba had refused to appear before Bitar previously, claiming immunity. Both are known for their strong political ties, with Ibrahim's including Hezbollah.

Bitar's probe stalled after Hezbollah accused him of bias and demanded his dismissal, and after officials named in the investigation filed a flurry of lawsuits to prevent it from going forward.

The resumption of the probe came with Hezbollah's influence weakened after last year's war with Israel which halted with a November 27 ceasefire.

As the power balance shifted, Lebanon this year appointed former army chief Joseph Aoun as president and former International Court of Justice judge Nawaf Salam as prime minister, after a more than two-year leadership vacuum.

Both have vowed to uphold the independence of the judiciary and prevent interference in its work, in a country plagued by impunity.

Earlier this month, a judicial official told AFP that two French judges would meet with Bitar in Beirut in the last week of April, bringing a detailed report on information that a separate French investigation into the blast had obtained.

The official also said that Lebanon had recently received requests from Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, whose nationals were also among the casualties, for updates on the investigation, including how long it would take.