New allegations in the port bombing, and the indictment is expected in April

The defendants are Director General of Customs, Raymond Khoury, former Director of Intelligence, retired Brigadier General Edmond Fadel, retired Brigadier General of Customs, Adel Francis, former Head of the Office of Legal Affairs and Discipline at the General Directorate of Public Security, retired Brigadier General Najm Al-Ahmadiyya, former Director of the Information Office at Public Security, retired Brigadier General Manah. Sawaya, retired Brigadier General of Public Security, Muhammad Hassan Muqallad, former Director of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in the Army, retired Brigadier General Marwan Eid, in addition to 3 employees in In the port, they are Ahmed Qasabiya, Marwan Kaaki, and Rabie Sorour (security official of Ward No. 12).

An-Nahar wrote: Information indicated that judicial investigator Tariq Al-Bitar was beginning to schedule interrogation sessions for a number of politicians and security personnel accused in the port file.

She pointed out that Al-Bitar’s procedure was scheduled since last September 18 and was postponed due to the Israeli war on Lebanon, and it is not related to political transformations.

Al-Akhbar wrote: More than two years after the investigations into the port explosion case that occurred on August 4, 2020 stopped, forensic investigator Tariq Al-Bitar re-moved the file by claiming 10 people yesterday, without being able to market the “project” before the discriminatory public prosecutor, Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar. Who met him in the office of the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, Suhail Abboud, as Al-Bitar left the meeting with a negative atmosphere after Al-Hajjar refused to take place. Notifications through the Cassation Public Prosecution, which in turn delivered them to the judicial police in order to implement them, due to his adherence to the effects of the decisions of his predecessor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, by requesting in January 2023 from the head and employees of the Registry of the Cassation Public Prosecution and the secretariat of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation “not to receive any decision, assignment, notification, or A commission, letter, referral, memorandum, correspondence, or document of any kind issued by The forensic investigator, with his hands tied and without standing, Judge Al-Bitar,” in addition to Oweidat’s allegations against the latter and considering him a usurper of authority, before he released the detainees pending investigation into the file.

Al-Bitar tried to overcome Al-Hajjar’s refusal to report it through the Cassation Public Prosecution, by seeking the help of the judicial department, who will be tasked with sending notification notes directly or by paste to the defendants and summoners, which turns moving the file that Al-Bitar wants into something like a “bubble” that neither advances nor delays, as Judicial sources confirm that the judicial investigator cannot arrest any person summoned, nor does he He can take any action against those who refuse to attend, or even issue his presumptive decision.

Al-Hajjar is focusing on finding legal solutions that will enable the judiciary to correct the course of investigations in order to open this case in a legal manner and on correct foundations. Contrary to what was circulated that Al-Hajjar intends to put his resignation on the table if Al-Bitar follows procedures that he considers illegal, observers indicated that “this matter will not happen.” While Al-Hajjar can step down from the file, this scenario is not on the table at the current stage.
Because the path of arrests is closed and therefore there are no effects to revive the investigations, the actual result is “a movement without blessing.” While some legal observers suggest that Al-Bitar will not issue any arrest warrant during the months he has designated for interrogation (February, March, and April), even if the defendants are absent, because it has no practical value. Rather, he will wait until the file is sealed so that he can simultaneously issue arrest warrants for whomever he deems involved, and this will not It will be before the end of next April and the beginning of May.

They expect that Al-Bitar will complete his investigations (knowing that his decision has almost been completed), provided that he concludes the investigation in order to refer it to the Cassation Public Prosecution to issue its review in the first place. If you refuse to do so, it is likely that Al-Bitar will issue his indictment to the Judicial Council after mentioning the inability of the prosecution to review it. Because everything Al-Bitar does sets precedents that no current or previous judge has set, legal experts do not have a definitive opinion on the correctness of this path, while others maintain that there is no room for avoiding the discriminatory public prosecution, which represents public rights.
Despite Al-Bitar’s attempt to separate his investigations from the political track, those concerned in this context raise many questions that refute his story, including leaks about the file during the war through a “choir” that spread on social media an atmosphere that the port file will be the first to be opened after the end of the war. And this is not the end of what Representative George Adwan “issued a fatwa” by indicating that “the presumptive decision on the port file will be issued in April.” These are “expectations” that soon proved accurate. Accordingly, the scenario becomes: Either the “Forces” have appointed themselves as decision makers dictating to Al-Bitar the date on which he will conclude his investigations, or at the worst they are coordinating with him in the course of an investigation that is supposed to be confidential and apolitical!