Lebanon - February 2023

After a 13-month stalemate generated by legal complaints and pressure by political elites, lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar announced that the inquiry into the deadly Beirut port explosions of 2020 would resume at the end of January 2023. Bitar indicted, among others, eight senior officials, including Lebanon’s Prosecutor General Ghassan Oweidat and former Prime Minister Hassan Diab. The decision to resume the investigation was challenged by Oweidat, who issued charges against Bitar for allegedly ‘exceeding his powers.’ Similarly, targeted politicians filed at least 25 complaints requesting that Bitar and other judges involved in the case be dismissed. Interrogations were suspended from 6 February until these legal complaints have been adjudicated.

Similarly, efforts to advance a stalled probe into the banking sector’s corruption and economic mismanagement –which contributed to Lebanon’s 2019 financial system collapse – were obstructed in February by Prosecutor General Oweidat. The lead investigator, Judge Ghada Aoun, charged two senior bankers for money laundering, and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh for money laundering, illicit enrichment, and embezzlement. Oweidat and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati requested that Aoun halt all investigative work. Oweidat further instructed the security forces not to implement Aoun's judicial decisions.

Sources: Reuters (1), Middle East Monitor, Al-Monitor, Reuters (2), Middle East Monitor, Reuters (3)