Lebanese prime minister charged in connection with Beirut explosion

A judge has charged Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab with negligence in connection with the August port explosion that killed 200 people in Beirut.

Judge Fadi Sawan charged Diab and three of his ex-cabinet ministers, former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil and former public workers ministers Youssef Finianos and Ghazi Zeaiter. Diab’s entire cabinet resigned in the wake of the blast.

State news agency NNA said Sawan has called all four in for questioning next week, according to NBC News.

A ship carrying several tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in the port for years before the explosion, one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts ever recorded.

Khalil, who currently serves as an aide to Nabih Berri, the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, accused Sawan of “violat[ing] the constitution and the law” by charging him.

نشعر بالحزن على ما وصلنا إليه في هذا القضاء والتردّي في الموقف الذي يجب ان يكون محصّناً بالقانون والدستور، اركان العدالة اليوم وابسط قواعد التزام العمل النقابي هي حماية المنتسبين فيها او السؤال او التدقيق قبل الافتراض انه اعطى رأي او اذن بالموضوع..#صار_الوقت

— Ali Hassan Khalil (@alihasankhalil) December 10, 2020

Several victims of the explosion said Sawan had requested that the immunity granted to several former government officials be removed and that Berri turned down the request. A judicial council said Sawan sent a letter in November dealing his “serious suspicions” of some government officials to Parliament, but that the body said it had found no evidence to back up the suspicions, according to NBC News.

“We have done what needs to be done and replied to him,” Berri said in November when asked about Sawan’s letter, according to a parliamentary office announcement.