Reuters has revealed the intention of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia to remove, Tariq Al-Bitar, the investigation judge in the Beirut port explosion from the investigation.
The agency has quoted an unnamed senior official in Hezbollah, who informed Tariq Al-Bitar, the investigative judge of the explosion, that the party would remove him from the investigation.
In the context, a judicial source has confirmed, “Bitar mentioned that message in a letter to the Public Prosecutor of the Discrimination.”
Henry El Khoury, the Justice Minister and judiciary were following up on the matter but a formal investigation has yet to be opened, the source said.
Reuters quoted journalist Lara Al-Hashem working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) as saying that “she was entering Beirut’s Palace of Justice on Sept. 20 to follow up on the news of a scheduled investigation session, along with lawyers and journalists, when she ran into, Wafiq Safa, Hezbollah official.”
“He asked me will you see Judge Bitar? If you meet him, give him this message,” she said.
According to Reuters, Lara declined to reveal the verbal message he was asked to deliver, but that message was described in a tweet posted by Edmund Sassin, her fellow journalist on Twitter on September 21, saying it was “accurate”.
Sassin said that Hezbollah, through Wafiq Safa, sent a threatening message to Judge Tariq Bitar.
“we have had it up to here with you, we will go along with you until the end of the legal road but if it doesn’t work we will remove you,” Sassin tweeted, citing Safa message sent to Bitar via Lara.
