Beirut Port
Judicial circles are awaiting what will next week bear regarding the investigation into Beirut Port explosion file, starting from the session scheduled for next Monday, to interrogate the former Minister of Public Works, Youssef Fenianos as a defendant in the case, and await the decision to be taken by the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Bitar, after information that Fenianos was informed through his representative the date of the session, and it became necessary for him to attend and defend himself, so as not to face the procedure faced by the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab.
Meanwhile, the judicial authorities got a new and very important document, related to the movement of the ship “Roussos” that carried ammonium nitrate from Georgia to the port of Beirut, and it was reported that it was heading to Mozambique. A prominent judicial reference revealed to “Sawt Beirut International”, that the aforementioned ship “did not have an insurance contract that allows it to cross the oceans, and the insurance allows it to pass in the Mediterranean only.” The reference stressed that “this document proves beyond any doubt that the ship was not heading to Mozambique, as the previous allegations had promoted, but rather docked at the port of Beirut on purpose, and that the unloading of its cargo at the port was deliberate, and premeditated.”
The investigation into the port case is facing difficulty from external factors, due to the reluctance of the concerned countries to provide satellite images, to resolve the hypothesis of targeting the port with an air-to-ground missile. In the new matter of this issue, the Lebanese judiciary received the response of the American authorities to Judge Bitar’s summons, in which he requested for American satellite images of the port. Sources following up on the file told “Sawt Beirut International”, that “the American response included photographs taken from the Google website, for Amber No. 12 before and after the explosion,” noting that “these images lack material and moral value, as anyone can copy them from Google, while what is required is video images of satellites, to finalize and conclusively resolve the hypothesis of aerial targeting of the port.” The sources questioned “the seriousness of the major countries’ cooperation with the Lebanese investigation, based on the blocking of their satellite images that accurately monitor the Lebanese coast, knowing that they monitor the movement of ships in implementation of Caesar’s law that punishes Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”
As for the investigation, the judicial investigator postponed the interrogation of retired Brigadier General in the Lebanese Army, Ghassan Gharzeddine, until September 15, after the latter attended with his legal representative and submitted formal pleas, he also postponed the interrogation of retired Brigadier General Jawdat Oweidat, who attended and submitted his formal defenses as well. These defenses were submitted to the Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Al-Khoury, to express an opinion on them.