It never happened in Lebanon’s judicial history that we witness such number of allegations and summons in one case for “high-ranking” people.

This incident has prompted the North Lebanon First Investigative Judge Samaranda Nassar to write a post on her Facebook page for Judge Tarek Bitar saying: “When you want to achieve your target you have to slap with a big stone”.

According to Judge Nassar’s post, Does Judge Bitar don’t want to achieve his target? If this is true, is what he is doing pointless in judiciary?

A judicial source told Sawt Beirut International (SBI) that Judge Bitar have enlarged the stone in order to strike a blow, based on the following data:

Judge Bitar followed his predecessor Former Judicial investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, who had previously requested lifting political immunity from MPs Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zoueiter. At that time, a campaign was launched against Judge Sawan under the title “legitimate suspicion.”

Moreover, Judge Sawan wanted to conduct confrontations between security officials and politicians, which was likely to reveal many ambiguous matters or question marks in this case, the most prominent of which are:

• Who among the officials was aware of the ammonium nitrate shipment’s danger, since it entered Lebanon in 2013?
• Who sent messages or gave orders for getting rid of them?
• Is their collusion in this case or just negligence from the concerned authorities? If it is true there are accomplices, so between whom and how did it take place?
• If the shipment was destined for Mozambique, why did it anchor in Beirut?
• Did the ship broke down when it entered Beirut Port, or this is an excuse because the ship was destined for Beirut not Mozambique?

Judge Bitar along with five assistant judges are trying to find answers for these questions, according to SBI’s source. They will also compare these answers with the statements that will be given by the Caretaker Prime Minister, former ministers, members of Parliament, as well as military and security officers from the Army, General Security, and State Security.

The mission is not easy at all, especially since it has become governed by the entitlements and interests of general public:

After one month exactly will be the remembrance occasion of the Beirut Port blast, so what will Judge Bitar achieve to provide to the victims’ families, injured and affected people?

Judge Bitar is in close contact with the families of the victims, as he is sitting with them periodically. This is a wise behavior, because the blast has turned into a general public case and no one can retract, because accountability will not come from politicians anymore but from the public. These changes have occurred in October 17, 2019 and were confirmed on August 4, 2020.