London court orders UK-registered firm to pay nearly $1 mln to Beirut blast victims

By Maya Gebeily

June 13, 2023

A demonstrator holds a black and white Lebanese flag during a protest for Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion against Lebanon's top public prosecutor who charged the judge investigating the Beirut port blast and ordered the release of those detained in connection with the explosion in front of the Justice Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 26, 2023. 

REUTERS/Aziz Taher/File Photo

BEIRUT, June 13 (Reuters) - A London court has ordered a British-registered company to pay more than 800,000 pounds ($1 million) in damages to victims of the 2020 blast at Beirut's port, a lawyers group in Lebanon said on Monday, in the first such verdict over the explosion.

More than 220 people were killed in the Aug. 4, 2020, blast when a huge shipment of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that had been sold by British-registered firm Savaro Ltd exploded.

On Jan. 31, the High Court in London found Savaro Ltd liable for death, personal injury and property damage in a case brought by the Beirut Bar Association on behalf of blast victims.

On Monday, the court ordered Savaro to pay 100,000 pounds plus interest each to three relatives of deceased victims, and slightly over 500,000 pounds to a wounded woman, according to a statement by the Association.

Reuters was unable to find contact details for Savaro or for its listed director.

"It's the first time that any court anywhere renders decisions as to liability and damages in the Beirut port explosion after approximately three years," said Camille Abou Sleiman, a lawyer from legal firm Dechert who was overseeing the case for victims and their families for free.

"It's the first ray of hope in the long march to justice and closure for the victims," Abou Sleiman told Reuters.

But the question of who exactly will pay remains unclear. The woman listed as Savaro's owner and sole director at Britain's Companies House, Marina Psyllou, told Reuters in 2021 that she was acting on behalf of another beneficial owner whose identity she declined to disclose.

Psyllou submitted a request in 2021 to Companies House to wind up Savaro. The Beirut Bar Association asked British authorities to halt that voluntary liquidation.

Lebanon's own probe into the blast has sputtered out. Earlier this year, investigating judge Tarek Bitar was charged with usurping powers after he filed his own charges against top security and political officials over the explosion.

"Everything that is moving forward is outside of the country," said Paul Naggear, whose daughter Alexandra was killed by the blast and who was one of the claimants.

"It shows you how much they've obstructed things in Lebanon. It was really good to hear this news, because it's progress."

($1 = 0.7948 pounds)

Reporting by Maya Gebeily Editing by Mark Potter

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LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BEIRUT 

Lebanon's top Christian cleric says judge probing port blast must be allowed to pursue truth


Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai is pictured during a meeting in Bkerke

Sun, January 29, 2023 at 6:49 AM MST·2 min read

AMMAN (Reuters) - Lebanon's top Christian cleric called on Sunday for the judge struggling to investigate the Beirut port explosion to be able to pursue his work and get help from any outside authority to pinpoint those responsible for the devastating blast.

Long-simmering tensions over the investigation have boiled over since Judge Tarek Bitar brought charges against some of the most influential people in Lebanon, defying political pressure to scrap the inquiry into the disaster that killed 220 people.

With friends and allies of Lebanon's most powerful factions, including Hezbollah, among those charged, the establishment struck back swiftly last week when the prosecutor general charged Bitar with usurping powers.

Critics called it "a coup" against his investigation.

"We hope investigating Judge Tareq Bitar continues his work to uncover the truth and issue a decision and get help from any international authority that can help disclose the truth...," Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, influential patriarch of Lebanon's largest Christian community, said in a sermon.

The Aug. 4, 2020 blast was caused by hundreds of tonnes of improperly stored chemicals of which the president and prime minister at the time were aware, among other officials.

Bitar resumed his inquiry on Jan. 23 after a 13-month break caused by legal wrangling and high-level political pressure, issuing charges against a number of senior officials including top public prosecutor Ghassan Oweidat.

Oweidat rejected Bitar's move and filed charges against him for allegedly mishandling the inquiry, as well as ordering the release of people detained in connection with the blast.

Rai has long said that Lebanon's judiciary should be free of political interference and sectarian activism.

"We won't allow however long it takes and rulers change to let the crime of the port pass without punishment."

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Lebanon judge probing Beirut blast charges top prosecutor


Tue, 24 January 2023 


Lebanon's judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast, has charged Lebanon's top prosecutor and seven others with probable intent to murder, arson and other crimes, an official said Tuesday.

Bitar had sparked surprise in Lebanon a day before when he charged eight top security and judicial officials, reviving a probe that was suspended for over a year amid vehement political and legal pushback.

It emerged on Tuesday from a judicial source who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity that Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat was among those charged, joining those who had already been announced on Monday including the head of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, and State Security agency chief Tony Saliba.

The Beirut port blast of August 4, 2020 -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- destroyed most of Beirut port and swathes of the capital, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was sparked by a fire in a portside warehouse, where a vast stockpile of the volatile industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

Relatives of the dead have been holding monthly vigils, seeking justice and accountability over the disaster, which they blame on an entrenched ruling class widely seen as inept and corrupt.

A US State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that "we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut".

- 'Like he doesn't exist' -

Lebanese state institutions have been reluctant to cooperate with the probe, which began the same month as the explosion.

The prosecution service rejected the resumption of the probe, according to a document seen by AFP Tuesday.

"We were only informed of Bitar's decision through the media," Oueidat, the top prosecutor, told AFP.

"Since he considers that the general prosecution doesn't exist, we will also act like he doesn't exist."

The arm-wrestling between Oueidat and Bitar is the latest of crisis-torn Lebanon's mounting woes, as the value of the national currency hit a new record low against the US dollar on Tuesday.

Protesters blocked roads in Beirut and other regions in the evening to voice anger over the weakened Lebanese pound and deteriorating living conditions, the state National News Agency reported.

Bitar's probe has been met with strong opposition from government figures and the powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, which has accused him of political bias.

Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally Amal called for demonstrations to demand his dismissal in October 2021, when a gun battle broke out at a Beirut rally and seven people were killed.

"Port investigation: Tarek Bitar has gone mad," ran the headline of the pro-Hezbollah daily Al-Akhbar, which also accused him of acting "on the basis of American orders and with European judicial support".

Bitar last week met with two French magistrates, who came to Beirut as part of the country's own investigation into the explosion that killed and injured French nationals.

- Delays and pushback -

The judge was forced to suspend his probe for more than a year after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

Bitar now plans to question 14 suspects next month, including five officials whom he indicted earlier -- among them ex-prime minister Hassan Diab and former ministers.

According to the unnamed judicial official, Oueidat had in 2019 overseen a security services investigation into cracks in the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

In February 2021, Bitar's predecessor as lead judge was removed from the case after he had charged several high-level politicians.

The interior ministry has also failed to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his quest for accountability.

Rights group Amnesty International charged Monday that "Lebanese authorities have shamelessly and systematically obstructed the pursuit of justice" and called on them to "ensure that the domestic investigation can proceed without political interference".

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Lebanon's middle class vanishes as economy collapses



Jennifer Holleis

DW
01/19/2023

Following years of political and economic crises, Lebanon's population structure has changed, and not for the better. Experts believe that the structural inequality will only widen in future.

Lebanon's capital Beirut has turned into a city of contrasts. Expensive cars park before popular restaurants and bars, while people of all ages rummage through bins for something edible.

"Also, more and more people are begging in the streets, mainly children but also elderly people," Anna Fleischer, head of the German Heinrich Böll Foundation's office in Beirut, told DW. While it is hard to tell the nationality, "it can be assumed that there are many Syrian refugees, but also Lebanese," she added.

Years of political instability in combination with an ongoing economic crisis — exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Port of Beirut blast in August 2020 — have brought the country close to collapse.

Lebanon ranks not only "among the most severe crises globally since the mid-19th century," according to the World Bank, but it is also likely that "an unprecedented institutional vacuum will further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and critical reform ratification, deepening the woes of the Lebanese people," the World Bank report says.

Vanishing middle class, rising hunger

Following years of massive economic contraction, in combination with a 95% devalution of its currency, the Lebanese middle class has practically vanished. In March 2020, the World Bank devalued Lebanon to a lower-middle income country.

"A person that is earning 1,500,000 Lebanese pounds used to have an equivalent of $1,000 before the crisis, and now it is equivalent to less than $200," Hussein Cheaito, a development economist at The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based research center, told DW.

In a recent publication on rising hunger and poverty in Lebanonby Human Rights Watch (HRW), Lena Simet stated that "millions of people in Lebanon have been pushed into poverty and have cut back on food." The senior economic justice researcher at HRW pointed to worrying trends of food insecurity in the lowest bracket of earners.

More and more people find it hard to make ends meet and have to skip meals

 JOSEPH EID/AFP

Similarly, a September report on food insecurity in the Middle East by the indepedent research network Arab Barometer found that nearly half of all citizens in Lebanon stated that they ran out of food before they had money to buy more.
Extreme wealth inequality

Meanwhile, there are no indications for change, and the tax system is not helping the overall situation in Lebanon.

"The taxation system in Lebanon is highly regressive, which means that there is no wealth tax code, and corporate taxes are amongst the lowest in the world compared to all OECD averages," Hussein Cheaito told DW.

The beneficiaries of the taxation system are those of the "political class and their business connections, because this 1% owns more than 70% of the national income," Cheaito said. This, in turn, leaves a very small percentage of wealth to the rest of the society," he claims.

Furthermore, those who earn their wages in Lebanese pounds, or receive support via charity organizations, suffer from another disadvantage. Banks only offer limited cash withdrawals in US dollars to those who have US dollars in their accounts.

Some Lebanese took to the streets in August 2022 to denounce the depreciation of the Lebanese currency due to the country's political and economic crisis.

Dario Sabaghi/DW

Also, for the past 20 years, Lebanese banks have kept the pegged exchange rate of $1 to 1,500 Lebanese pounds. This, however, will be updated to $1 to 15,000 pounds on February 1. Even though this is 10 times more than before, it is still far from the actually used exchange rate on the black market. The current rate ist 50,000 pounds to the dollar.

On the other hand, for those, who work for international companies or have other means of accessing dollars, life has become relatively cheap, which also explains the thriving cocktail bars and fully booked restaurants.

Dollarization of the economy

"The reality today is that one of the most important sources of income for families are remittances from family members who live abroad," Lynn Zovighian, the co-founder and managing director of The Zovighian Partnership, a family-owned social investment platform that develops research-led socio-economic interventions, told DW.

"The collapsed private sector, and expected contraction of the public sector, is driving rising unemployment numbers," she said, adding that "Lebanon is also going through a de facto dollarization of its economy, but not by law or policy. This is happening with no price controls or penalties against financial abuse," the Beirut-based Zovighian said.

Fuel shortages and soaring prices make a full tank of gas a luxury only few can afford.

Mohamed Azakir/REUTERS

Meanwhile, talks between the Lebanese government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have led to a staff-level agreement for a program worth about $3 billion over the next 46 months. However, a financial recovery plan to protect the most vulnerable in society, was not included.

"Three billion dollars will be barely enough to get the country back on its feet, given the size of the losses in the financial sector, which are at least $70 billion," Chaeito said.

Moreover, the IMF agreement highlighted that, given the weak state of the Lebanese government and the public sector, Lebanon should focus on state-owned enterprises and the privatization of social and public services, Chaeito told DW.
Macro-economic stabilization

"What are the guarantees that private companies won't actually engage in price hikes and further inflation, which we've seen in Latin America? This could mean that only the ultra-rich will be able to access services," the analyst said.

He regards macroeconomic stabilization as the only solution to save the country from collapse and with it, the majority of the population.

"I refer to the redistribution of losses in the financial sector, ensuring that we have a clear financial recovery plan that primarily protects the smallest of depositors and people who have a middle or low income," Hussein Chaeito said, adding that "their wealth has to be recapitalized, without this it will be impossible to really see the income gap being reduced."

Lebanese desperate over bank crisis

01:43

Mohammed Chreyteh in Beirut contributed to this article.
Edited by: Nicole Goebel

 

Why Lebanon, Iraq And Jordan Rank Among World’s Angriest Countries’ – Analysis

 January 9, 2023 

By Arab News

By Rawan Radwan

Many breathed a sigh of relief when 2022 drew to a close, marking the conclusion of 12 months of post-pandemic fatigue, geopolitical tension and global economic instability, to name but a few of the past year’s challenges.

One result of the year’s volatility and upsets is the pervading sense of anger coursing through societies, fed up with the litany of back-to-back crises — solutions for which appear to evade governments and global institutions.

The Arab world has been no exception. Three Middle Eastern countries ranked among the world’s angriest in Gallup’s latest annual Global Emotions Report, owing in large part to a rage-inducing mixture of socio-economic pressures and institutional failings.

Just as the world economy appeared to be recovering from the lockdowns, supply-chain disruptions and travel bans of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine sent inflation spiralling, with rising food and fuel prices falling heavily on the world’s poorest.

Add to this the corrosive effects of political instability, corruption and suspected climate change, and the past year unsurprisingly proved to be a period of mounting anxiety, frayed tempers and violent unrest for millions worldwide.

In the Middle East and North Africa, where price fluctuations, climate shocks and protracted political crises have been keenly felt, Gallup’s polling found public anger is widespread and growing — a development experts say regional governments ought to take seriously.

Gallup first began tracking global unhappiness in 2006 with a methodology based on nationally representative, probability-based samples among the adult population, aged 15 and above, collected from 122 countries.

It found that negative emotions — the aggregate of stress, sadness, anger, worry and physical pain — reached a record high last year, with 41 percent of adults globally saying they had experienced stress the previous day.

Furthermore, these negative emotions appear to be growing, with 2021 displacing 2020 as the most stressful year in recent history.

In the past decade, the Arab world has been roiled by mass protests, regime collapse, corruption, scandals, wars and mass migrations, disrupting regional priorities and internal dynamics.

In the latest Gallup Global Emotions Report, Lebanon topped the list for the highest share of respondents — 49 percent — reporting feelings of anger the previous day. 

Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of its worst-ever financial crisis, which has wiped 95 percent off the value of its currency and left much of the population subsisting below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, with its parliament in paralysis and unable to elect a new president, the country has failed to implement essential structural reforms to address institutional corruption and alleviate the suffering of its people.

Millions of Lebanese, many of them still traumatized by the Beirut port blast of August 2020, have chosen to leave the country, including many young people and skilled workers, fed up with poor conditions and a lack of opportunities.

Iraq, which faced a year of political paralysis in the wake of its October 2021 parliamentary election, came fourth in the Gallup anger rankings with 46 percent, while Jordan, itself struggling with persistent inflation, came sixth at 35 percent.

Jordan has seen several waves of protest in recent years due to its rising cost of living and high rates of unemployment, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation.

Julie Ray, managing director of Gallup World Poll News, says she is not surprised that Lebanon featured so high on the 2021 list given its multilayered crisis.

“Lebanon was in the throes of political and economic meltdown. People were struggling to put food on their tables and taking to the streets. The situation was so fraught that Gallup also saw a record 63 percent of Lebanese adults saying they would leave if they could,” Ray told Arab News.

“Now, the presence of a number of Arab countries at the top of the ‘most angry’ list is also not that surprising given that many of these countries have been on the ‘most negative in the world’ list almost every year.

“Iraq is a good example. About half of the population (or more) in Iraq have felt angry the previous day since 2010. And majorities in the country have experienced a lot of stress and worry.”

Michael Young, a senior editor at Carnegie Middle East in Beirut, says it is understandable many Lebanese feel some form of anger and frustration, as “the system simply does not work, at any level.”

“People feel constantly robbed,” he told Arab News. “The system is completely dominated by these cartels. If the people want to get something from the state, the state, half of the time, isn’t functioning.

“So, the Lebanese feel that they’re being robbed on a daily basis. They’re paying much more than other countries, and they’re getting services that are far more mediocre than anywhere else in the world.

“Since the collapse, many services have declined. Hospitals, education and everything pertaining to energy, and naturally, this has created much frustration. You had many people who were essentially middle-class people who suddenly found themselves in poverty.

“To top it off, the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut, in which more than 200 people were killed, half of Beirut was destroyed, and no one was held responsible. When you live in this kind of environment, it is very understandable that you are angry.”

This constant struggle has left many Lebanese feeling understandably frustrated. However, Young says that expectations play an important role in feelings of dissatisfaction.

Compare, for instance, a nation such as Lebanon — a middle-income country that has seen a sudden decline in services and political stability since 2019 — with the likes of Afghanistan, a poor country crippled by war for nearly half a century.

“When you have a nation like Afghanistan, where it’s been riddled with endless conflict and standards of living shooting down since the 1970s, (low expectations are) understandable,” Young told Arab News.

“If your expectations are high, and the reality is very short of these expectations, this will make you more angry than if your expectations are low and what you get in return is also relatively low.

“The question of expectations is a main generator of Lebanese frustration. The Lebanese were used to a life that suddenly, in one way or another, catastrophically collapsed.”

Afghanistan, which had been among the world’s most corrupt nations and which saw the Taliban return to power in August 2021, was ranked fifth angriest in Gallup’s poll at 41 percent.

In recent decades, reported negative emotions have been steadily rising in Gallup’s polling. The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have accentuated this trend. But, as Ray points out, “every country is different.”

“The common thread we tend to see in countries where negative experiences are high is crisis. The populations are all living through some sort of turmoil — be that economic, political or social.”

The question that arises from the data, however, is whether analysts and governments can predict how populations will react if their grievances are not addressed. Are angry populations more likely to elect populist leaders or even rise up against their rulers? 

“These data don’t predict how people will act, but how people feel certainly affects how they act,” Ray said.

“Other non-Gallup researchers have found relationships between negative emotions — like anger, worry, stress and sadness — and civil unrest or populist beliefs and voting.”

What is clear from the data is that governments cannot measure the well-being of their societies based merely on gross domestic product and market data .

“How people feel does matter,” Ray said. “Leaders should pay attention to these data, along with GDP and other metrics they are watching.”

File photo of protestors in Lebanon facing off against army. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

British Museum showcases ancient vessels smashed in Beirut blast

Agence France-Presse - Wednesday

LONDON: Eight ancient glass vessels shattered in the 2020 Beirut explosion go on display at the British Museum from Thursday, walking visitors through the painstaking international project to piece them back together.


A photograph taken on August 24, 2022 shows the newly conserved ancient glass vessels damaged during the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and displayed at the British Museum in London, ahead of an exhibition which will walk visitors through the laborious conservation project. AFP PHOTO© Provided by The Manila Times

The vessels, from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, were reconstructed at the world-famous museum's conservation laboratories, and will be shown as part of its "Shattered Glass of Beirut" showcase, before returning to Lebanon later this year.

"(It) tells a story of near destruction and recovery, of resilience and collaboration," said Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum.

The vessels were among 74 contained within a case at the American University in Beirut (AUB).

The case fell over when the shockwave of the port blast, which occurred three kilometers (two miles) away on August 4, 2020, hit the building, smashing the glass objects inside.

A team of experts had the daunting task of sorting every shard of glass, deciding if it was part of an ancient vessel, rather than display case, and which vessel it belonged to, Duygu Camurcuoglu, a senior conservator at the British Museum, told Agence France-Presse.

"It's all pretty much done by hand or by eye — brainwork basically. You have to know certain techniques to be able to carry out this work," she added.

Once the pieces had been sorted, the conservators began the mammoth jigsaw-puzzle exercise of reassembling the vessels.

"It's a case of using an adhesive to reconstruct the vessels," said Camurcuoglu. But they could not just use anything.

"We don't use superglue, we don't use UHU," she joked.


British museum press assistant Stella Scobie examines the newly conserved ancient glass vessels damaged during the 2020 Beirut port explosion, and displayed at the British Museum in London, on August 24, 2022 ahead of an exhibition which will walk visitors through the laborious conservation project. 

AFP PHOTO© Provided by The Manila Times

'Scars'

The most challenging vessels were the "large dish and the Byzantine pitcher," Camurcuoglu recalled.

Eighteen of the vessels have so far been conserved as part of an emergency recovery campaign in Beirut, along with the eight vessels at the British Museum and two that emerged unscathed from the fall.

Experts hope that at least half of the remaining 46 objects in Beirut can be conserved soon too.

The collaborative project between the British Museum and the AUB's Archaeological Museum began in 2021, following an offer of help from the London institution.

Conservators agreed early on to make the vessels structurally sound but leave imperfections caused by the shattering visible, bearing witness to the explosion.

The exhibition will take visitors on the journey undergone by the glass vessels, from the moment of the blast to their display in the famous London museum.

Lighting will be used in the display to illuminate cracks and gaps in the glass.

"We really wanted to highlight the damage these objects went through, so we can all look at the scars, and remember how they were revived together," said Camurcuoglu.

The vessels are considered important in telling the story of the development of revolutionary glass-blowing techniques in Lebanon in the 1st century BC, enabling the mass production of glass objects and making them available for common use.

Their restoration, and the teamwork involved, is a source of pride to the conservators, said Camurcuoglu.

"We all individually felt that, I think, we contributed to something by working on these objects — by sharing this pain, these emotions.

"So it's not only about the conservation... but also the working together and achieving something together," she added.

Large section of smoldering Beirut port silos collapses

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB

yesterday

1 of 6

This image from a video, shows smoke and dust rising from collapsing silos damaged during the August 2020 massive explosion in the port, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. The ruins of the Beirut Port silos' northern block that withstood a devastating port explosion two years ago has collapsed. The smoldering structure fell over on Tuesday morning into a cloud of dust, leaving the southern block standing next to a pile of charred ruins. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)


BEIRUT (AP) — Another significant section of the devastated Beirut Port silos collapsed on Tuesday morning in a cloud of dust. No injuries were reported — the area had been long evacuated — but the collapse was another painful reminder of the horrific August 2020 explosion.

The collapse left the silos’ southern part standing next to a pile of charred ruins. The northern block had already been slowly tipping over since the initial explosion two years ago but rapidly deteriorated after it caught fire over a month ago due to fermenting grains.

The 50 year old, 48 meter (157 feet) tall silos had withstood the force of the explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the blast that killed over 200 people, injured more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighborhoods.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told The Associated Press that the speed of the tilt rapidly accelerated overnight on Monday, just hours before the collapse.

“There was a very sharp acceleration, which was expected,” Durand explained. “When this happens, you know it’s going to go.”

The country’s caretaker environment minister, Nasser Yassin, told Lebanese TV that the government will now look into how to ensure the southern block remains standing. He urged residents near the port to wear masks, and said experts would conduct air quality tests.

In April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blast’s victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the 2020 tragedy.

In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smoldered for over a month. Officials had warned that the silo could collapse, but feared risking the lives of firefighters and soldiers who struggled to get too close to put out the blaze or drop containers of water from helicopters.

Survivors of the blast and residents near the port have told the AP that watching the fire from their homes and offices was like reliving the trauma from the port blast, which started with a fire in a warehouse near the silos that contained hundreds of tons of explosive ammonium nitrate, improperly stored there for years.

The environment and health ministries in late July issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

Durand last month told the AP that the fire from the grains had sped up the speed of the tilt of the shredded silo and caused irreversible damage to its weak concrete foundation.

The structure has rapidly deteriorated ever since. In late July, part of the northern block collapsed for the first time. Days later on the second anniversary of the Beirut Port blast, roughly a fourth of the structure collapsed. On Sunday, the fire expanded to large sections of the silo.

Lebanese woman sees son for first time since blast two years ago

Maya Gebeily and Layla Bassam
Thu, August 4, 2022 

Nassma Cheaito, kisses the hand of her sister, Liliane who is mostly paralyzed from August 2020 port as she lies on hospital bed at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut


By Maya Gebeily and Layla Bassam

(Reuters) - Lebanese mother Liliane Cheaito, stuck in the hospital since the Beirut blast two years ago, saw her son for the first time on Thursday following a court ruling in a protracted family dispute with her husband.

Cheaito has not left the American University of Beirut's Medical Center since August 4, 2020, when she was brought in bruised and bleeding after the enormous explosion at Beirut's port, which was caused by improperly stored chemicals.

She sustained severe damage to her frontal brain cortex that left her mostly paralyzed and unable to speak.

Two of her four sisters told Reuters that her husband, Hassan Ali Hodroj, had barred her from seeing their son Ali, now two years old, during her stay in the hospital. Liliane's family in 2020 filed a complaint with Shi'ite religious authorities seeking to compel Hodroj to allow the child to visit his injured mother.

Iqbal Cheaieb, a lawyer for Hodroj, said the father had kept Ali from the hospital because he was "scared" to let the boy see his mother in such a state. The couple remain married.

On Thursday, Ali visited Liliane at the hospital for the first time following an order by a Shi'ite court in Lebanon, where personal affairs including custody of children are determined by tribunals pertaining to the individual's sect.

"The court issued a final decision on Wednesday mandating weekly visits and our father and lawyer met with Mufti Ahmed Qabalan this morning," said Nawal Cheaito, Liliane's sister.

Qabalan is the top Shi'ite cleric in Lebanon.

A photo shared by the family showed Liliane in her hospital bed, extending her left hand to a curly-haired boy in a black shirt that the family identified as two-year-old Ali.

"She didn't take her eyes off of him for one second," Nawal told Reuters, saying she hoped the visits would boost Liliane's morale and speed up her recovery.

In July, Liliane uttered her first word in nearly two years – "mama" – understood by her siblings to be a cry for Ali.

Her sisters had earlier told Reuters that Liliane represented the "agony" of Lebanon's multiple crises: the devastating blast and its aftermath for grieving families, and the daily struggle of many citizens to survive as the country's economy has crumbled.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Layla Bassam; editing by Marla Dickerson)

Explainer-Two years since Beirut blast, why has no top official been held to account?


A general view shows the Beirut silos damaged in the August 2020 port blast

Wed, August 3, 2022 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Thursday marks the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion which killed at least 215 people, wounded thousands and damaged swathes of the capital.

Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, a judicial investigation has brought no senior official to account.

With the probe frozen for months, many Lebanese see this as an example of the impunity enjoyed by a ruling elite that has long avoided accountability for corruption and bad governance, including policies that led to a financial collapse.

Here is a recap of how the blast happened, and the obstacles that have paralysed the investigation.


WHAT HAPPENED?

The explosion just after 6 p.m. on August 4, 2020, resulted from the detonation of hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate which ignited as a blaze tore through the warehouse where they were stored.

Originally bound for Mozambique aboard a Russian-leased ship, the chemicals had been at the port since 2013, when they were unloaded during an unscheduled stop to take on extra cargo.

The ship never left the port, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects.

No one ever came forward to claim the shipment.

The amount of ammonium nitrate that blew up was one fifth of the 2,754 tonnes unloaded in 2013, the FBI concluded, adding to suspicions that much of the cargo had gone missing.

The blast was so powerful it was felt 250 km away in Cyprus and sent a mushroom cloud over Beirut.

WHO KNEW ABOUT THE CHEMICALS?

Senior Lebanese officials, including President Michel Aoun and then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, were aware of the cargo.

Aoun said shortly after the blast he had told security chiefs to "do what is necessary" after learning of the chemicals. Diab has said his conscience is clear.

Human Rights Watch said in a report last year that high-level security and government officials "foresaw the significant threat to life ... and tacitly accepted the risk of deaths occurring".

WHO HAS INVESTIGATED THE BLAST?

The justice minister appointed Judge Fadi Sawan head investigator shortly after the blast. Sawan charged three ex-ministers and Diab with negligence over the blast in December, 2020, but then hit strong political pushback.

A court removed him from the case in February, 2021 after two of the ex-ministers - Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeitar - complained he had overstepped his powers.

Judge Tarek Bitar was appointed to replace Sawan. He sought to interrogate senior figures including Zeitar and Khalil, both of them members of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's Amal Movement and allies of the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

He also sought to question Major-General Abbas Ibrahim, head of the powerful General Security agency.

All have denied wrongdoing.

HOW HAS THE PROBE BEEN STYMIED?

All of the current and former officials Bitar has sought to question as suspects have resisted, arguing they have immunity or that he lacks authority to prosecute them.

This tussle has played out in the courts, in political life and on the streets.

Suspects swamped courts last year with more than two dozen legal cases seeking Bitar's removal over alleged bias and "grave mistakes", leading to several suspensions of the investigation.

The ex-ministers have said any cases against them should be heard by a special court for presidents and ministers. That court has never held a single official accountable, and it would pass control of the probe to ruling parties in parliament.

The probe has been in complete limbo since early 2022 due to the retirement of judges from a court that must rule on several complaints against Bitar before he can continue.

The finance minister - who is backed by Berri - has held off signing a decree appointing new judges, citing concerns with the sectarian balance of the bench.

WHAT DOES HEZBOLLAH THINK?

Bitar has not pursued any members of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

But Hezbollah campaigned fiercely against him last year as he sought to question its allies. One senior Hezbollah official sent Bitar a message warning that the group would "uproot" him.

An anti-Bitar protest called by Hezbollah and its allies last October escalated into deadly violence.

Hezbollah has accused the United States, which lists the group as a terrorist organisation, of meddling in the probe.

The U.S. ambassador has denied this.

Hezbollah dismissed accusations made at the time of the blast that it had stored arms at the port and says it had nothing to do with the blast. Its adversaries have long accused the group of controlling the port - something it also denies.

(Writing by Timour Azhari and Tom Perry, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Groups ask UN to investigate Beirut's massive 2020 blast


FA rescue team surveys the site of a massive explosion in the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Aug. 7, 2020. A group of Lebanese and international organizations on Wednesday, Aug, 3, 2022, called on members of the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut Port blast two years ago. The call came as the domestic investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged officials against the judge leading the investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 blast that killed nearly 220 and injured over 6,000.

AP Photo/Thibault Camus

BASSEM MROUE
Wed, August 3, 2022 

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese and international organizations Wednesday called on the U.N. Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the Beirut port blast two years ago, as a domestic probe continues to stall.

The call by groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International came as the Lebanese investigation has been stalled since December following legal challenges by charged and accused officials against the judge leading the investigation. The Aug. 4, 2020 blast killed nearly 220 people, injured over 6,000 and caused widespread damage in Beirut.

The call also came amid concerns that a large section of the port's giant grain silos, shredded by the massive explosion, might collapse days after a smaller part fell following a weekslong fire of fermented grain ignited by the scorching summer heat. Lebanese authorities closed a main road outside the port and directed traffic into internal streets as a precautionary measure.

The northern block of the silos has been slowly tilting for days since the other part collapsed Sunday.

A group of U.N. experts also called Wednesday for an international investigation saying “this tragedy marked one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in recent memory, yet the world has done nothing to find out why it happened.”

The organizations called on the U.N. rights council to put forward a resolution at the upcoming council session in September that would dispatch “without delay, an independent and impartial fact-finding mission” for the explosion.

They believe the mission would establish the facts surrounding the explosion, including the root causes, without political intervention. This would support the victims’ campaign for an effective investigation, they said. The groups want to establish state and individual responsibility and support justice for the victims.

Many have blamed the Lebanese government’s longtime corruption and mismanagement for the tragedy considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history when hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a material used in fertilizers, detonated at the port.

Official correspondence between political, security and judicial officials reveal that many were aware about the hazardous substances unloaded in the port a decade ago without taking meaningful action to remove it.

After the blast, port, customs and legal documents revealed that the ammonium nitrate had been shipped to Lebanon in 2013 on a worn out Russian ship and stored improperly at a port warehouse ever since.

Tarek Bitar, the judge leading the Lebanese investigation, charged four former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the deaths of dozens of people. He also charged several top security officials in the case.

None of them have been detained and two of those charged were re-elected to parliament in May.

An initial investigation by Human Rights Watch points to the potential involvement of foreign-owned companies, as well as senior political and security officials in Lebanon.

“It is now, more than ever, clear that the domestic investigation cannot deliver justice,” the groups said adding that the establishment of an international fact finding mission mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council is “all the more urgent.”

The group said that previous calls by survivors of the explosion and families of the victims remain unanswered.

“As the Lebanese authorities continue to brazenly obstruct and delay the domestic investigation into the port explosion, an international investigation is the only way forward to ensure that justice is delivered,” said Diana Semaan, acting deputy director at Amnesty International.


On Beirut blast anniversary, Christian patriarch condemns govt



Thu, August 4, 2022

(Reuters) -Lebanon's top Christian cleric on Thursday denounced his country's government for failing to bring to justice those responsible for the Beirut port blast, marking the huge explosion's second anniversary with demands for accountability.

Bechara Boutros al-Rai, in a mass commemorating its victims, said that "God condemns those officials" who were stalling investigations that the government "has no right" to block.

The blast at the port, which killed at least 220 people and was recorded as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by massive stores of ammonium nitrate kept at the site since 2013.

Two years on, no senior official has been held to account.

A domestic probe into the exact causes of the explosion - and who was responsible for or negligent regarding the ammonium nitrate's presence - has been stalled for more than six months.

There is still no unified official death toll. Two security sources told Reuters that their counts were at least 220 dead, with at least 20 more people unaccounted for, mostly Syrian nationals.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and John Stonestreet)

Truth about Beirut port blast cannot be hidden, pope says


Pope Francis holds weekly general audience at the Vatican


Wed, August 3, 2022 

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday he hoped the people of Lebanon can be comforted by justice over the Beirut port blast that killed at least 215 people two years ago, saying "the truth can never be hidden".

Speaking at his weekly general audience, Francis noted that Thursday would be the second anniversary of the blast, which also wounded thousands of people and damaged large swathes of the capital.

"My thoughts go to the families of the victims of that disastrous event and to the dear Lebanese people. I pray so that each one can be consoled by faith and comforted by justice and by truth, which can never be hidden," he said.

Despite the devastation wrought by the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, a judicial investigation has brought no senior official to account.


With the probe frozen for months, many Lebanese see this as an example of the impunity enjoyed by a ruling elite that has long avoided accountability for corruption and bad governance, including policies that led to financial collapse.

Francis said he hoped that Lebanon, helped by the international community, could see a "renaissance" and be a land of peace and pluralism where members of different religions can live together in fraternity.

The pope was to have visited Lebanon in June but the trip was postponed, partly because of his health and partly because of the political situation in Lebanon.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Beirut blast victim's parents wage lonely battle for justice

Layal Abou Rahal
Tue, August 2, 2022 


Paul and Tracy Naggear have lived in grief since the massive explosion that tore through the Lebanese capital in 2020 killed their three-year-old daughter, and their anger boils over the stalled investigation.

The August 4 mega-blast, blamed on a fire that ignited tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser haphazardly stored for years at Beirut harbour, was one of the largest non-nuclear detonations ever recorded.

It destroyed thousands of homes, including the couple's apartment which overlooked the harbourside. Their daughter Alexandra was one of the youngest among the more than 200 people killed.

Failed attempts to hold accountable the state officials whose negligence is widely blamed for Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster have made Alexandra's death even more bitter.

"Our sadness is not the same, it keeps growing, because as time goes on, we miss Alexandra and feel her absence," said Tracy, 36.

"Although we can learn to live with sadness, there is an anguish and anger that continues to grow" in the absence of justice, she told AFP in the lead-up to the tragedy's second anniversary on Thursday.

Paul and Tracy moved out of Beirut and settled in the mountain town of Beit Mery, 10 kilometres (six miles) away following the blast.

The walls and shelves of their home are adorned with pictures of Alexandra.

Like hundreds of relatives of blast victims, they have received no answers from those at the top. And with investigations stalled, not a single official has been put on trial.

"In the beginning, we were hopeful" about the fight for justice, Tracy said. "But now we feel that we are alone."

- 'Exhausting' -

The port blast -- which was heard as far away as the island of Cyprus -- briefly reignited public anger against a ruling class that had already flared in a 2019 protest movement.

The demonstrations were drained of momentum by a severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, before the monster explosion presented a stark reminder of the negligence of the country's leaders.

In the wake of the disaster, Lebanon's ruling elite drew even more public ire by interfering in a local probe that aimed to pinpoint culpability.

The lead investigator, Tarek Bitar, who was chasing after some of the country's top brass, has been barred from proceeding by a series of lawsuits filed by political leaders since last year.

The lawsuits against Bitar are part of a wider campaign spearheaded by the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement which has called for his replacement, accusing him of bias.

"It is exhausting to live in a country that lacks justice," Paul said, a painting of his daughter raising a Lebanese flag during the 2019 protests on a shelf behind him.

"The criminals won't prosecute themselves," he added.

For the bereaved father, justice can only be served through an international fact-finding mission -- a demand of many relatives and rights groups.

The stalled domestic probe has been coupled with a decline in public mobilisation, as only relatives of blast victims still join demonstrations calling for accountability.

"Unfortunately, we feel as though people have either lost hope or become lazy," Paul said.
- 'Until death' -

Parliament member Melhem Khalaf, a former Beirut bar association head, has tried to fight the official impunity.

During his time at the helm of the Beirut bar, the association helped 1,200 families affected by the explosion to file lawsuits against the state.

But both domestic and external factors have hampered official investigations.

Khalaf said international powers have yet to provide Lebanon with satellite images or reports drafted by foreign experts who participated in preliminary investigations.

Back in Beit Mery, the living room is filled with pictures of Alexandra -- as well as with the belongings of Tracy's infant son Axel, who was born in March.

Tracy took Axel to a protest organised by victims' families last month.

"August 4 will be a big part of his life," Tracy said of her son.

"We will fight for truth and justice until the day we die. But if we die before, I would want Axel to carry on the cause."

lar/ho/aya/hc/fz

Part of Beirut silo complex collapses after fire, following devastating 2020 port blast

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Silos damaged in waterfront explosion that killed over 200 and injured thousands

The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 31, 2022 

Dust rises as part of Beirut's grain silos, damaged in the August 2020 port blast, collapses on Sunday. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

A section of Beirut's massive port grain silos, shredded in the 2020 explosion, collapsed in a huge cloud of dust on Sunday after a weeks-long fire triggered by grains that had fermented and ignited in the summer heat.

The northern block of the silos collapsed after what sounded like an explosion, kicking up thick grey dust that enveloped the iconic structure and the port next to a residential area. It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured.

Assaad Haddad, the general director of the Port Silo, told The Associated Press that "everything is under control" but that the situation has not subsided yet. Minutes later, the dust settled and calm returned.

However, Youssef Mallah, from the Civil Defence department, said that other parts of the northern block of the silos were at risk and that other sections of the giant ruin could collapse.

A section of the silo complex along Beirut's waterfront is seen burning on Friday. The fire ignited on July 7 due to fermentation of remaining grain stocks paired with rising temperatures. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

The 50 year-old, 48-metre-tall giant silos withstood the force of the explosion two years ago, effectively shielding the western part of Beirut from the chemical blast that killed over 200 people, wounded more than 6,000 and badly damaged entire neighbourhoods.

In July, a fire broke out in the northern block of the silos due to the fermenting grains. Firefighters and Lebanese Army soldiers were unable to put it out and it smouldered for weeks, a nasty smell spreading around. The environment and health ministries last week issued instructions to residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

Part of the silos is seen burning during the night of July 14. (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images)

The fire and the dramatic sight of the smouldering, partially blackened silo revived the memories and in some cases, the trauma for the survivors of the gigantic explosion that tore through the port two years ago.

People rush indoors after collapse

Many rushed to close windows and return indoors after the collapse Sunday.

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told the AP that the northern block of the silo was already been tipping since the day of the 2020 blast, but the latest fire had weakened its frail structure, accelerating a possible collapse.

• ANALYSIS
  Beirut blast a 'knockout punch' after succession of crippling blows to Lebanon

• Thousands of Lebanese call for justice 1 year after massive explosion

When the fermenting grains ignited earlier in July, firefighters and Lebanese soldiers tried to put out the fire with water, but withdrew after the moisture made it worse. The Interior Ministry said over a week later that the fire had spread, after reaching some electric cables nearby.

The silos continued smoldering for weeks as the odour of fermented grain seeped into nearby neighbourhoods. Residents who had survived the 2020 explosion said the fire and the smell reminded them of their trauma. The environment and health ministries last week instructed residents living near the port to stay indoors in well-ventilated spaces.

The Lebanese Red Cross distributed K-N95 masks to those living nearby, and officials ordered firefighters and port workers to stay away from the immediate area near the silos.

Engineer says collapse was inevitable 

Emmanuel Durand, a French civil engineer who volunteered for the government-commissioned team of experts, told the AP earlier in July that the northern block of the silo had been slowing tilting over time but that the recent fire accelerated the rate and caused irreversible damage to the already weakened structure.

Here's a view of Beirut's badly damaged waterfront and the still-intact side of the silo complex as part of it continued to smoulder last Thursday, a week after flames were extinguished. (Hussein Malla/The Associated Press)

Durand been monitoring the silos from thousands of kilometres away using data produced by sensors he installed over a year ago, and updating a team of Lebanese government and security officials on the developments in a WhatsApp group. In several reports, he warned that the northern block could collapse at any moment.

Last April, the Lebanese government decided to demolish the silos, but suspended the decision following protests from families of the blast's victims and survivors. They contend that the silos may contain evidence useful for the judicial probe, and that it should stand as a memorial for the tragic incident.

The Lebanese probe has revealed that senior government and security officials knew about the dangerous material stored at the port, though no officials have been convicted thus far. The implicated officials subsequently brought legal challenges against the judge leading the probe, which has left the investigation suspended since December.

Beirut Silo Collapses, Reviving Trauma Ahead Of Blast Anniversary


By Issam Abdallah, Yara Abi Nader, Laila Bassam and Timour Azhari
07/31/22

A woman uses her phone near the partially-collapsed Beirut grain silos, damaged in the August 2020 port blast, in Beirut Lebanon July 31, 2022.

 Photo: Reuters / MOHAMED AZAKIR

Part of the grain silos at Beirut Port collapsed on Sunday just days before the second anniversary of the massive explosion that damaged them, sending a cloud of dust over the capital and reviving traumatic memories of the blast that killed more than 215 people.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Lebanese officials warned last week that part of the silos - a towering reminder of the catastrophic Aug. 4, 2020 explosion - could collapse after the northern portion began tilting at an accelerated rate.

"It was the same feeling as when the blast happened, we remembered the explosion," said Tarek Hussein, a resident of nearby Karantina area, who was out buying groceries with his son when the collapse happened. "A few big pieces fell and my son got scared when he saw it," he said.


A fire had been smoldering in the silos for several weeks which officials said was the result of summer heat igniting fermenting grains that have been left rotting inside since the explosion.

The 2020 blast was caused by ammonium nitrate unsafely stored at the port since 2013. It is widely seen by Lebanese as a symbol of corruption and bad governance by a ruling elite that has also steered the country into a devastating financial collapse.

One of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts on record, the explosion wounded some 6,000 people and shattered swathes of Beirut, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

Ali Hamie, the minister of transport and public works in the caretaker government, told Reuters he feared more parts of the silos could collapse imminently.

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said that while the authorities did not know if other parts of the silos would fall, the southern part was more stable.

The fire at the silos, glowing orange at night inside a port that still resembles a disaster zone, had put many Beirut residents on edge for weeks.

'REMOVING TRACES' OF AUG. 4

There has been controversy over what do to with the damaged silos.

The government took a decision in April to destroy them, angering victims' families who wanted them left to preserve the memory of the blast. Parliament last week failed to adopt a law that would have protected them from demolition.

Citizens' hopes that there will be accountability for the 2020 blast have dimmed as the investigating judge has faced high-level political resistance, including legal complaints lodged by senior officials he has sought to interrogate.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati has said he rejects any interference in the probe and wants it to run its course.

However, reflecting mistrust of authorities, many people have said they believed the fire was started intentionally or deliberately not been contained.

Divina Abojaoude, an engineer and member of a committee representing the families of victims, residents and experts, said the silos did not have to fall.

"They were tilting gradually and needed support, and our whole goal was to get them supported," she told Reuters.

"The fire was natural and sped things up. If the government wanted to, they could have contained the fire and reduced it, but we have suspicions they wanted the silos to collapse."

Reuters could not immediately reach government officials to respond to the accusation that the fire could have been contained.

Earlier this month, the economy minister cited difficulties in extinguishing the fire, including the risk of the silos being knocked over or the blaze spreading as a result of air pressure generated by army helicopters.

Fadi Hussein, a Karantina resident, said he believed the collapse was intentional to remove "any trace of Aug. 4".

"We are not worried for ourselves, but for our children, from the pollution," resulting from the silos' collapse, he said, noting that power cuts in the country meant he was unable to even turn on a fan at home to reduce the impact of the dust.

(Writing by Nayera Abdallah and Tom PerryEditing by Hugh Lawson, Nick Macfie and Frances Kerry)