Judge Tarek Bitar, the judicial investigator in the Beirut port explosion crime, has been notified of a new lawsuit case filed against him by Raghida Al-Zein, wife of Ali Sawan, one of the victims of the Beirut port explosion, in which she requested the dismissal of the judicial investigator, claiming that it “has become an obstacle to revealing the truth in the explosion crime.”

According to a court source, the Supreme Judicial Council’s president, Judge Suhail Abboud, “assigned the Civil Cassation Chamber, led by Judge Afif Al Hakim, to evaluate this matter and give a judgement in this regard.” The source indicated that the court “initiated the procedures for informing the parties to the case of its content, starting with the judicial investigator, who received a copy of the case and signed it while he was in his office in the Palace of Justice this Thursday noon.”

The Civil Court of Cassation, presided over by Judge Jamal Khoury, is still considering a complaint filed by the attorney for one of the port’s victims, in which she requested that the case filed by Khalil and Zeaiter be transferred from the Court of Cassation, presided over by Judge Naji Eid, to another court due to “force majeure” that prevents Judge Eid from hearing the case.

It is necessary to decide on this case, especially since Khalil and Zeaiter have filed a lawsuit against the state against Judge Eid, which keeps the file frozen, because the general body of the Court of Cassation, which is authorized to issue its decision on the litigation lawsuit, has been dissolved and there is no possibility of appointing replacements for them due to the freezing of judicial formations and the disputes that afflict the Judicial Council.