Lebanese lawyer files complaint against country’s leaders over Beirut blast

BEIRUT — A Lebanese lawyer files a legal complaint against the country’s president and prime minister for allegedly not taking action to remove dangerous material that had been stored at the port of Beirut.

The material — 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives — ignited and exploded earlier this month, killing scores and wounding thousands of people.

The move by lawyer Majd Harb is largely symbolic, based on the fact that President Michel Aoun and outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab received a security report two weeks before the August 4 explosion, warning about the dangers of storing the chemical.

Following the explosion, Aoun said that once he received the report, he asked his military adviser to immediately act on it and do what was necessary. However, it was not clear why the material was not removed. There has been no comment from Diab, who resigned under pressure few days after the blast.

“They did not take any measures to prevent the explosion,” Harb’s complaint says. It is published by the state-run National News Agency.

Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that many customs, port, intelligence, military and judicial officials, as well as political leaders, knew about the stockpile of ammonium nitrate at Warehouse 12 at Beirut’s port and nothing was done.

The explosion, which killed 180 people, injured about 6,000 and left nearly 300,000 people homeless was the most destructive single incident in Lebanon’s history, and left property losses worth between $10 billion and $15 billion. There are 30 people still missing after the explosion.

— AP