Lebanon top prosecutor charges Beirut blast investigator

BEIRUT: Lebanon´s Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat told AFP on Wednesday he had charged the judge investigating a devastating 2020 Beirut port blast for “rebelling against the judiciary” and slapped him with a travel ban.

Oueidat said that in order to “prevent sedition” he had “charged investigative judge Tarek Bitar and banned him from travel for rebelling against the judiciary.” A judicial official said Oueidat had summoned Bitar for questioning on Thursday morning.

Oueidat also ordered the “release of all those detained over the Beirut port explosion case, without exception” and banned them from travel, according to a judicial document seen by AFP Wednesday.

One of history´s biggest non-nuclear explosions, the blast destroyed much of Beirut port and surrounding areas on August 4, 2020, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.