PM declines to be questioned in Beirut blast probe

Reuters | Beirut

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, has declined to be questioned by the judge who charged him and three former ministers with negligence over the Beirut port blast, an official source said on Monday.

Judge Fadi Sawan’s charges have met pushback from influential parties including Shi’ite Hezbollah and Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, underlining the political problems facing the investigation.

Lebanese are still waiting for answers for more than four months since one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts on record. A huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate detonated in August after being stored unsafely for years, killing 200 people, injuring thousands and devastating entire districts.

Some politicians have suggested Sawan was selective in deciding who to charge and that he overstepped his powers by charging government ministers. Others, including the head of the Beirut Bar Association, have said the move showed courage.

Sawan had requested an appointment from Diab’s office but was told he would not agree to be questioned, the official source at the prime minister’s office said. Sawan could not immediately be reached for comment.

The caretaker interior minister, Mohammed Fahmi, said he would not enforce any arrest warrants for Diab or the other officials if they refused to be questioned.

“I would not order the security agencies to implement such a legal decision, and let them pursue me if they wish,” the Lebanese newspaper al-Joumhouria quoted him as saying.

After meeting with Diab on Friday, Hariri pledged not to let anyone “violate the post of the prime minister” - a seat reserved for a Sunni Muslim in the sectarian power-sharing system.

The three former ministers charged by Sawan are members of parties allied to Hezbollah, which said the charges smacked of “political targeting”. Two are members of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s Shi’ite Amal party, which also accused the judge on Monday of breaching the constitution.

Lebanon’s senior Christian cleric, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, said on Sunday he hoped reactions to Sawan’s move would not obstruct the probe or cause “a national division on a sectarian basis for which we do not find any justification”.