The judge leading the investigation into the Beirut port explosion in August 2020 suspended proceedings after senior officials indicted in the case challenged his impartiality and asked that he be dismissed.
Judge Tarek Bitar will pause the investigation pending a ruling by the court of cassation after former interior minister Nouhaq Mashnouq filed a request to replace him, state-run National News Agency reported.
Mr Mashnouq had asked the court on Friday to appoint another lead investigator, saying that Mr Bitar has overstepped his legal authority by seeking to prosecute senior officials. He said they should instead be prosecuted before a special body that includes parliamentarians and senior judges, as stipulated by the constitution.
Days earlier, former public works minister Youssef Fenianos petitioned the Supreme Court to remove Mr Bitar on doubts of his impartiality.
The judge had issued an arrest warrant for Mr Fenianos after he failed to appear for questioning and summoned former prime minister Hassan Diab. Mr Diab was indicted for criminal negligence in connection with the case by Mr Bitar’s predecessor, Fadi Sawan.
Mr Sawan was removed by the Supreme Court after former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter, both members of Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal parliamentary bloc, raised a petition.
All four ministers, along with Mr Diab, had snubbed multiple summonses, saying the lead investigator had no authority to question them. They were supposed to appear for questioning this week.
The suspension is the latest setback to an investigation that has been marred in controversy since the blast killed more than 214 people and destroyed large part of the Lebanese capital.
The families of victims and human rights campaigners have accused politicians of blocking the inquiry after Parliament refused to authorise Mr Bitar’s request to question the three lawmakers who were indicted in the case.
Activists will hold a sit in outside the Justice Palace in Beirut on Wednesday to protest what they said were attempts to obstruct justice.
The investigation into the explosion has yet to reveal the owner of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that exploded at the port in August 2020. It remains unclear why the explosive fertiliser was left sitting at the port for more than six years with the knowledge of the country’s senior political and security officials.
The explosion led to the resignation of Mr Diab’s government and left Lebanon without a functioning Cabinet for almost a year, compounding the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Investigative media reports have linked the fertiliser shipment to businessmen who have ties to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, an ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Hezbollah has criticised Mr Bitar on several occasions, accusing him of politicising the investigation and recently threatening to remove him.
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The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
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