Informed sources told “Sawt Beirut International” that the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, refused to give permission to the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion case, Judge Tariq Bitar, to pursue the Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba.

An informed judicial source told “Sawt Beirut International” that the judicial investigator “received during the past hours the answer of the government’s presidency, in which it refused to give permission to pursue Major Saliba. Diab attributed the reason to the fact that the Supreme Defense Council is the competent authority to consider whether this permission can be given or not”.

Judge Bitar is studying the measures that can be taken in this regard, including the possibility of asking the Supreme Defense Council to give permission to prosecute Saliba in the port explosion case.

In addition, the same judicial sources confirmed that the discriminatory attorney general, Judge Ghassan Al-Khoury, refused to give permission to the judicial investigator to prosecute the Director General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim.