BEIRUT: Lebanon’s investigating judge has charged caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence over the Beirut port blast that killed 200 people and ruined a swathe of the capital in August.
The others are former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as former public works ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Youssef Finianos, state news agency NNA said on Thursday.
Zeaiter told Reuters he would make a statement once he was officially informed of the charges. He headed the public works and transport ministry in 2014, shortly after the arrival of the Rhosus ship carrying a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which detonated at the port.
Officials have said the cargo of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical, was stored unsafely for years at the port, which lies in heart of the city.
Diab’s office, Finianos and Khalil, who is a senior aide to Lebanon’s influential Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Four months after one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record, which injured thousands of people, victims are still waiting for the results of an investigation their leaders had promised would come within days of the Aug. 4 port blast.
The judge leading the official inquiry, Fadi Sawan, sent a letter last month asking parliament to probe 10 former ministers.
——
READ MORE: People disabled by Beirut explosion stage protest
How the port explosion rubbed raw Beirut’s psychological scars
In blast-hit Beirut, ‘invisible’ elderly women face destitution
——
Diab said in a statement on Thursday his conscience was clear and that he was confident his hands were clean.
He added that he had dealt transparently with the file of the Beirut port explosion, adding that he was surprised to be targeted by the investigating judge.
Documents surfaced soon after the explosion showing that at least 10 times over the past six years, authorities from Lebanon’s customs, military, security agencies and judiciary raised the alarm that a massive stockpile of potentially dangerous chemicals was being kept with almost no safeguard at the port in the heart of Beirut.
President Michel Aoun, in office since 2016, said he was first told of the stockpile nearly three weeks before the explosion and immediately ordered military and security agencies to do “what was needed.” But he suggested his responsibility ended there, saying he had no authority over the port and that previous governments had been told of its presence.
Since the material arrived in Lebanon in late 2013, four prime ministers have been in office during the past seven years.
Najib Mikati, Tammam Salam and Saad Hariri have reportedly said that they were not aware of the existence of the material at the port. Diab has said was only informed about the presence of the “explosives” days earlier and planned to visit the site. He told reporters earlier this year that he canceled his visit to the port after he was told that the material were fertilizers.
“There is a list to be made of all those who knew and should all be held responsible,” said Elie Hasrouty, whose father died in the port explosion. “Their job is not to refer (the matter) to others, but to stop that bomb from going off and to protect people.”
Investigators probing the blast had so far focused on personnel at the Port of Beirut. Judge Sawwan said he has set next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as dates for interrogating the four as defendants.
Both Khalil and Fenanios were sanctioned by the US in September this year, the first two officials to be subjected to those outside of the militant Hezbollah group.
*With AP and Reuters
People disabled by Beirut explosion stage protest Lebanese creative fashions traditional tableware from Beirut blast’s broken glassIn blast-hit Beirut, ‘invisible’ elderly women face destitutionHow the port explosion rubbed raw Beirut’s psychological scars