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    Families slam plans for second judge to probe Beirut blast

    BEIRUT (AP) – Dozens of relatives of the victims of Beirut’s massive port blast protested yesterday against the judiciary’s plan to name a second investigative judge, calling the move an attempt by the country’s political class to prevent justice after one of the world’s largest non-nuclear explosions.

    The investigation into the blast, which killed 218 people, injured thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage has been blocked since December by Lebanon’s political powers. That’s after three former Cabinet ministers filed legal challenges against investigative judge Tarek Bitar.

    Now, Justice Minister Henri Khoury and the Higher Judicial Council, Lebanon’s top judicial body, are looking into naming a second judge to release some port and customs officials as well as workers who have been detained without charges since the blast.

    “What is happening is an attempt to remove the case from judge Bitar,” a Lebanese journalist who covers legal affairs Youssef Diab told The Associated Press during the protest outside the office of the justice minister. “By naming a second investigative judge to approve the releases, it means that judge Bitar has been ripped of his powers.”

    Many blame the tragedy on the Lebanese government’s longtime corruption, but the elite’s decades-old lock on power has ensured they are untouchable. The August 4, 2020 explosion occurred when hundreds of tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilisers, detonated at the port.

    It later emerged that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since. Senior political and security officials knew of its presence but did nothing.

    A rescue team surveys the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon. PHOTO: AP
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