Lebanon judge completes investigation into port blast: judicial official

BEIRUT: Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar has completed his investigation into the 2020 Beirut port blast, a years-long case that involves possible charges against dozens of people, a judicial official told AFP on Monday.
Since 2023, the investigation into the massive Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 220 people on August 4, 2020, has been in jeopardy after Hezbollah led a campaign demanding the removal of Bitar, who was later hit with dozens of lawsuits to remove him from the case.
Bitar resumed his investigation last year as Lebanon’s balance of power shifted following a 2023-2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group.
“The investigating judge in the Beirut port explosion case, Tarek Bitar, decided to conclude his investigations into the case and referred the entire file to public prosecutor Jamal Hajjar,” the official told AFP.
The number of defendants in the case reached around 70 people, including politicians, security and military officials and civil servants, according to the official.
The prosecutor will study the file and present his opinion and then refer it again to Bitar “who will issue his indictment and determine the responsibility for each of the defendants.”
Bitar is supposed to “make a decision regarding about 20 defendants who appeared before him since the beginning of 2025” on whether to “detain them, set them free or conditionally release them,” the official said.
Bitar has already made his decision regarding the remaining 50, including politicians and judges who refused to appear before him for questioning, according to the official.
No one is currently detained in relation to the port blast.
Lebanese authorities say the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.