No compromise will be made to dismiss Judge Tarek Bitar in charge of the investigation into the explosion of the Port of Beirut, indicate sources close to the presidency of the republic, who stress that no blackmail could be successful to reactivate the council. ministers.
These sources alluded to rumors of a compromise aimed at removing Judge Souhail Abboud from the Supreme Judicial Council who had ruled on his incompetence in the appeals presented by relatives of chamber president Nabih Berri and others. former ministers.
Nabih Berri would have estimated that the indictment of the former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil and the former Minister of Public Works, Ghazi Zoaiter, targeted him personally and would have accused Judge Tarek Bitar of instrumentalizing his investigation. Supported by the ministers of Hezbollah, the ministers of the Amal movement announced their boycott of the Mikati III government meetings in early November, demanding the relinquishment of the judge in favor of the high court in charge of trying the former and current presidents of the republic, prime ministers and ministers to the chagrin of the families of the victims who fear that this body, composed half of deputies and whose decision must be taken unanimously, bury the file.
For his part, a compromise mentioned would also be to dismiss the public prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, close to the current of the future and brother-in-law of Ghazi Zoaiter and the financial prosecutor, Judge Ibrahim Ali, also close to the Amal movement. On the financial side, Baabda would also get the head of the governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé, even if he would be supported by the president of the chamber Nabih Berri, by the former prime minister Saad Hariri and by the former deputy Walid Joumblatt as well as the Maronite patriarch Béchara Boutros Rahi. For the time being, concerning Riad Salamé, Prime Minister Najib Mikati would refuse to comment on his possible resignation, even if he would seek to find alternatives to him.
This information comes at a time when the Constitutional Council should rule by tomorrow on the appeal presented by the Free Patriotic Current concerning the date of the upcoming legislative elections and the quorum necessary for its adoption. As a reminder, the president of the chamber would have thus approved the holding of the elections next March with only 55 deputies present instead of 65 as estimated by the CPL to be specified by the Lebanese constitution.
However, sources close to the president of the chamber indicate that this proposal comes up against for the moment the refusal of Nabih Berri to have the financial prosecutor dismissed, the latter having so far protected the banks or the governor of the Bank. from Lebanon, Riad Salamé whose head is also requested by the head of state after reception by the Lebanese justice of the results of the investigation carried out in Switzerland against him and his relatives for money laundering and embezzlement.
