Lebanese president demands long-awaited charges over 2020 Beirut port blast

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urges his country’s judiciary to issue a long-awaited indictment over the 2020 Beirut port blast, on the eve of the catastrophe’s sixth anniversary.

“The issuing of the indictment by the investigating judge has become a necessity that can no longer be delayed,” Aoun says in a statement.

The massive Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500 and damaged swathes of the capital.

Lebanese authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, apparently at the behest of Hezbollah, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

Nobody has been held accountable for the disaster, with victims and their families still demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity.

The case, which is still with the public prosecutor, had been bogged down by political and legal wrangling since 2023, after Iran-backed Hezbollah led a campaign demanding judge Tarek Bitar’s removal and dozens of lawsuits also sought to remove him from the case.

Justice “means upholding rights, revealing the whole truth without any omission, and holding accountable” all those who were negligent or caused the catastrophe “whatever their position,” Aoun says.

“The Lebanese judiciary is called today more than ever before to prove its independence and ability to deliver justice to the victims. The indictment is not just a legal procedure, but a right owed by the living to the martyrs and their families,” he adds.