After announcing on Monday the resumption of investigations that had been frozen for more than a year as a result of lawsuits filed by defendants against him, the Public Prosecution Office of the Court of Cassation rejected on Tuesday all the decisions taken by the judicial investigator in an explosion. Beirut port.
The Public Prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, who is one of the 8 other persons accused by the judicial investigator Tariq Bitar on Monday, issued a letter confirming that Judge Bitar’s hand was “blind”.
The book added that the decision to desist came by law, pointing out that no decision was issued that annulled the original decision.
Accordingly, the Public Prosecution Office of the Court of Cassation did not accept Al-Bitar’s decisions.
Resounding legal jurisprudence
These developments came after the judicial investigator, Judge Tariq Al-Bitar, returned to resume his work, based on resounding legal jurisprudence that came as a surprise in terms of form and timing.
Jurisprudence considered that the Judicial Council is an independent body parallel to the General Authority of the Court of Cassation, and considered that any decision stipulating the disqualification of the judicial investigator is the abolition of a site that was established by a ministerial decree, so that the judicial investigator does not need permission to pursue the defendants, as it is essentially authorized to carry out With this task…
Perhaps the most prominent event in the decision to return to the judicial investigator was his willingness to sue a group of political, security and judicial figures for interrogation as defendants.
Among the defendants are the Director General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, and the Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, and the notifications were sent to the Public Prosecution Office of the Court of Cassation, so that the defendants would be requested to investigate next week, as it was reported.
Informed judicial sources also reported that Judge Bitar’s first step was to prosecute 8 of those responsible for the Beirut port explosion, including the Director General of Public Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and the Director General of State Security, Major General Tony Saliba, and those who had previously requested permission to pursue them but did not obtain it, in addition to Head of the Supreme Council of Customs Brigadier General Asaad Al-Tufaili, member of the Supreme Council of Customs Gracia Al-Qazi, and judges Ghassan Oweidat, Ghassan Khoury, Carla Shawah and Jad Maalouf, calling on the Public Prosecution Office to prosecute them.
As for the second surprise, according to the judicial sources, it lies in the fact that the judicial investigator will soon start his claim against a senior judge because of his failure to carry out his duties to remove the nitrates from the port of Beirut, which caused its destruction.
The sources also pointed out that Judge Al-Bitar was now freed from responding to more than 20 requests that he was showered with by the defendants of the explosion who refused to appear before him, knowing that he resorted to legal judgment when he sensed the existence of a serious decision to appoint a substitute judge that changes the course of investigations in favor of those who obstruct his mission.
political pressure
It is noteworthy that Judge Al-Bitar’s move came after his meeting with a French judicial delegation in Beirut at the end of last week, and his declaration of adherence to the port investigation file and that he would not give up the case under any pressure.
And the judicial investigator Tariq Al-Bitar stopped his work in December 2021 as a result of the hand-holding requests submitted by current and former ministers and deputies who were accused of the port explosion and refused to appear before him.
Bitar faced major political pressures, most notably from Hezbollah, as one of his senior officials visited the Palace of Justice in Beirut, threatening to “cap” the judicial investigator if he continued his investigations.