Police fired tear gas to try to disperse relatives of victims of last year’s Beirut port blast protesting outside the home of the caretaker interior minister on Tuesday over his refusal to let the lead investigator question Lebanon’s security chief.
Nearly a year after the Aug. 4 explosion, which killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands and devastated swathes of the capital, many Lebanese are furious that no senior officials have been held to account.
Judge Tarek Bitar had asked to question Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of the General Security agency, alongside other top officials including three lawmakers and the caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab, but was turned down.
Over 100 people gathered around Fahmy’s home on Tuesday, calling him a “terrorist”, according to a Reuters witness, before pushing their way into the entrance of the building, some of them writing on the walls, “Fahmy is a criminal”.
“The Lebanese people have come to support us, where are you, hero?” a demonstrators yelled mockingly through a megaphone.
Scuffles ensued with police, who repelled protesters from the building entrance after firing tear gas, but the crowd refused to leave the area and tensions rose as more riot police arrived at the scene, witnesses said.
Parliament has yet to decide whether to lift the immunity of former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zeaiter and former interior minister Nohad Machnouk in connection with the port inquiry, after adjourning proceedings on Friday to seek more information from the judge.
Bitar became the lead investigator into the blast after his predecessor, Judge Fadi Sawan, was removed in February following requests from two former ministers whom he had charged with negligence over the blast.
Carrying mock coffins, relatives of those killed in Lebanon’s port blast scuffled with police Tuesday outside the residence of caretaker interior minister Mohammad Fahmi whom they accuse of stalling a probe.
The detonation of a huge stockpile of fertilizer at the port last August 4 killed more than 200 people and wrecked huge swathes of the capital.
A blast investigation launched in the wake of the tragedy has yet to hold any officials to account, with the victims’ families charging that political interference has derailed the process.
On Tuesday, dozens gathered outside Fahmi’s Beirut apartment after he rejected a request by the judge investigating the blast to question Abbas Ibrahim, head of the General Security bureau, one of the country’s top security agencies.
“By refusing to lift Abbas Ibrahim’s legal immunity, the interior minister is standing between us, the relatives of blast victims, and justice,” said Paul Najjar, who lost his three-year-old daughter Alexandra to the explosion.
“He is killing us a second time,” Najjar said, referring to Fahmi.
Less than a month before the first anniversary of the tragedy, the relatives tore off all the gates at the entrance to Fahmi’s apartment building, an AFP correspondent said.
They displayed portraits of the deceased in a makeshift shrine and piled up white coffins just outside the block, the correspondent said.
“These are the coffins of our children,” Najjar said.
The demonstration sparked a stand-off with police who tried to push families back.
Last month, rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for a UN investigation into the explosion in light of Lebanon’s stalled probe.
Lead judge Tarek Bitar is demanding that parliament lift the immunity of ex-finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former public works minister Ghazi Zaiter and ex-interior minister Nohad Machnouk.
Deputy speaker Elie Ferzli said parliament’s administration and justice committee on Friday decided to “request all evidence available in the investigation, as well as all documents that prove suspicions” before immunity is waived.
However, Bitar this week rejected parliament’s request, a judicial source told AFP.
In February, Bitar’s predecessor as lead judge in the probe was removed by a court, which questioned his impartiality because his home was damaged in the explosion.
The judge had in December issued charges against caretaker premier Hassan Diab and three former ministers for “negligence and causing death to hundreds,” triggering outrage from politicians.
