Shame On The Judicial Investigator For Not Listening To Kahwaji As A Defendant!

Shame On The Judicial Investigator For Not Listening To Kahwaji As A Defendant!

The Judicial Investigator, Judge Fadi Sawan, will be treating former army commander Jean Kahwaji as a witness in tomorrow’s resumption of the Port investigations case. And so United For Lebanon–Anti-Corruption (UFL) attorneys have requested, on behalf of the plaintiff Rami Ollaik, to ​​hear Kahwaji as a defendant instead of a witness.

We wonder… How is it possible to have the last six months’ indisputable evidence and indications only lead to a courteous session and not a firm indictment?

This question is posed due to the Army leadership’s legal authority and awareness of the ship MVRhosus’s entry while loaded with 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate; inevitably tracing back to the army commander at the time: Jean Kahwaji. Hence UFL Attys.’ expectation and request from Judge Sawan to fulfill his duty by hearing Kahwaji (and other officials) as defendants; based on the law and all the hard evidence.

In a related context, and in addition to the aforementioned request, UFL Lawyers filed today -Tuesday February 10 2021- a direct complaint as Ziad Risha’s Power Of Attorney (a victim of the explosion that also took away his mother’s life) under the status of a personal prosecution and merging it with their public prosecution against 28 defendants besides the former army commander Jean Kahwagi, for the crimes of terrorism, murder, intentional harm, and for violating the agreement on occupational safety and health of port handling operations. And these defendants are Prime Minister Hassan Diab, former Prime Ministers Saad El-Hariri and Tammam Salam, current Minister of Public Works and Land Transport Michel Najjar and his predecessors Youssef Fenianos & Ghazi Zaiter, Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni and his predecessor Ali Hassan Khalil, current Army Commander Joseph Aoun, Director General of Public Security MAJ Abbas Ibrahim, Director General of Army Intelligence Brig. Gen. Antoine Mansour and his predecessors Brig. Gen. Camille Daher & Brig. Gen. Edmond Fadel, Director General of State Security MAJ Tony Saliba and his predecessor MAJ George Qara'a, Public Prosecutor for Cassation Judge Ghassan Oweidat and his predecessor Judge Samir Hammoud, Government Commissioner to the Military Court Acting Judge Fadi Akiki and his predecessors Peter Germanos and Sakr Sakr, Judge of Urgent Matters in Beirut Jad Maalouf, Directors General of Customs Badri Daher & Hasan Koraytem and their predecessor Shafiq Merhi, Director of Projects in Beirut Port Administration Michel Nahoul, Director of a consulting company that oversees maintenance work at the port Nayla El-Hajj, and the first superintendent of the Manifest Department at Customs Nehmat Brax.

And so this complaint stands to account for Risha’s loss and for six months’ worth of attempts to hold accountable the small-time officials in the port as a scapegoat to evade the actual responsibility of those to whom the orders were directed. UFL evokes the grave and flagrant violations of the law outlined in its direct and only complaint that had gained precedence by the Judicial Investigator, and of which Judge Sawan had taken part after a few months of its filing, through interrogating a number of defendants as identified by the complaint. Consequently, the complaint filed today by a citizen who lost his mother as a result of the explosion, as one of thousands affected, was nothing but confirmation from UFL of the wound it has been pressing on; and it is only another opportunity (or the last) for the Lebanese judiciary to compensate for all the delay that occurred in this file. Or else those who have the courage and competence to take charge of the investigations will serve justice, put an end to its obstruction and avenge the Lebanese.