After two years of being stymied by Lebanese authorities, the lead investigator in the Beirut port explosion case has reportedly resumed the investigation. According to media reports, on January 16, 2025, Judge Tarek Bitar summoned 10 additional employees and security officials implicated in the blast, with investigation sessions reportedly set to take place in the coming months.
Hampered by political interference, the investigation has been effectively suspended since December 2021. On January 23, 2023, Bitar attempted to resume the investigation, but the attempt was thwarted by Lebanon’s top prosecutor at the time, Ghassan Oueidat, who himself had been charged by Judge Bitar in the Beirut blast case.
The resumption of the investigation raises cautious hope that those responsible for the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 200 people and injured thousands, may at long last be held to account. An investigation by Human Rights Watch found that the disaster, one of the largest nonnuclear explosions in recent history, arose from the government’s failure to protect the right to life and indicated the potential involvement of senior officials in Lebanon.
On January 14, in his first speech as Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, Nawaf Salam, promised to work to provide justice to the victims of the Beirut port explosion. Similarly, on January 9, Lebanon’s newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, stated in his first speech before parliament that there would be no interference with the work of the judiciary under his term and “no immunities given to criminals or corrupt individuals.”
Lebanon’s new government and president should now work with parliament to address the political and legal barriers that have hampered the investigation, and they should also ensure that security forces effectively execute the investigation and arrest requests issued by Judge Bitar. Lebanon’s parliament should enact a law on the independence of the judiciary that falls in line with international standards and amend provisions of Lebanon’s criminal and civil codes of procedures that have been opportunistically exploited by suspects to paralyze the investigation.
In their first remarks as prime minister-designate and president, both Salam and Aoun indicated that a new phase in Lebanon’s history has begun. But to effectively end decades of impunity that have characterized Lebanon’s past, an effective justice system free of political influence must serve as the cornerstone upon which this new phase is built.
