Beirut victims want the truth 6 months after blast

Dozens of family members of the victims of the Beirut port blast gathered Monday outside the house of the judge investigating the explosion demanding justice.Six months on, the domestic investigation has been brought to a virtual halt by the same political and confessional rivalries that thwarted past attempts to uncover the truth in major crimes.

Government officials rebuffed an international probe and appointed former military court judge Fadi Sawwan to investigate.He has largely focused on government incompetence amid public anger at a corrupt political class blamed for Lebanon’s slide into poverty and upheaval.In a rare move, Sawwan charged two former ministers and the current prime minister with negligence, triggering pushback.

The prime minister refused to appear for questioning, calling it “diabolic” to single him out for charges.The ministers challenged the judge and asked Lebanon’s highest court to replace him in a move that brought the probe to a halt since Dec. 17.

In early January, the Court of Cassation ruled that Sawwan can resume his investigation while it reviews calls to replace him, keeping the possibility hanging over the probe.Yet Sawwan hasn’t resumed work, raising concerns among victims’ families that he may have caved to pressure.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Sawwan’s appointment process was opaque and the investigation itself, so far secret, has been tainted with political interference.At least 25 people have been held since August under the investigating judge’s powers of unlimited pre-trial detention.

He only questioned them once, according to HRW.Most are port staff, including the head of the port authority, a security official and a maintenance engineer, and all face the same litany of charges no matter what their position, said Aya Majzoub, HRW's Lebanon researcher.

Majzoub said a UN fact-finding mission is needed.

In an investigative report, Lebanese documentary maker Feras Hatoum revealed that the company that bought the ammonium nitrate may have links through shell companies with two Syrian businessmen under US sanctions for their ties to President Bashar Assad.One of them was sanctioned in 2015 for his suspected role in securing explosives for Assad’s forces.