Saad Hariri denounced the exploitation of the victims of the explosion at the Port of Beirut which he said would take place on the eve of the first commemorations of this tragedy which left more than 200 dead and 6,500 injured.
As a reminder, some relatives of Saad Hariri would also be questioned by the judge Tarek Bitar in charge of the investigation, in particular his former interior minister Nouhad Machnouk but also the former director of the port of Beirut Hassan Koreytem.
Thus, the former prime minister believes that there are “populist directives on the judicial path to cover up the truth”, calling on the judiciary to “free the justice from political duels and media judgments” instead of to “engage in electoral campaigns and to corrupt Lebanese public opinion with justice on demand”.
The former prime minister thus considered that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon shed light on the circumstances of the assassination of former prime minister Rafic Hariri, his father, but that the identity of those who assassinated Kamal Joumblat, Rachid Karamé, Renee Mouawad, Dany Chamoun, Elie Hobeika, the Mufti of the Republic Hassan Khaled, or even Nazim al-Qadri remains unknown. He also referred to the investigations concerning other victims of attacks including Walid Eido, Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, George Hawi, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, François Hajj, Mohammed Shatah, Wissam al-Hassan, Wissam Eid and ” dozens of other crimes “.
There is no justice without accountability, no accountability without truth, and no truth without a transparent international investigation or the lifting of immunities – all immunities from the top of the pyramid to the bottom.
Saad Hariri
The former prime minister concluded by expressing his solidarity with the families of the victims and stressing that this is a national day of mourning.