Lebanese parliamentarians have established adequate security during port searches | The story of the Beirut eruption

Lebanese lawmakers on Friday conducted a joint investigation Beirut port explosion, less than a month before his first year, wants more evidence before defending the security of former interrogators.

Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded in the Beirut harbor last August 4, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and destroying the city.

Later, it became known that the supervisors had been aware of the explosive drugs that had been stored unsafe at the port for years.

Earlier this month, the chief judge in the case, Tareq Bitar, said he had applied for a seat in parliament raise adequate security former finance minister Ali Hasan Khalil, former government minister Ghazi Zaiter and former prime minister Nohad Machnouk.

Bitar said he was looking into potential cases of “murder” and “negligence”.

A petition from Bitar for questioning Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of the Security Council, was rejected by Interior Minister Mohamed Fahmy in a letter to the Minister of Justice.

In his remarks, Ibrahim said he obeyed the law like everyone in Lebanon, but the investigation should be conducted “away from minor political views”.

Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli said the oversight committee and the legislature met on Friday and decided to “request all available evidence in the investigation, as well as all documents that are suspicious”.

He said the committee would meet again once it received a response, to decide whether or not to do so.

Attorney-general and activist Nizar Saghieh said the petition was against the sharing of power between the judiciary and parliament, and “violated the privacy of the investigation”.

“He just wants to buy time,” he said.

Speaking in Beirut, Ayman Raad, a lawyer representing one of the bombers, told Al Jazeera that a Lebanese law required a judge investigating the blast to obtain permission to consult a government official from his or her supervisors.

“The interior ministry has refused to grant permission for the judge to cross-examine General Ibrahim, saying in his opinion there is nothing wrong with the officer’s actions,” Raad said.

“What to do with this … This is what has been requested now.

“But because of legal policy … I don’t see this happening anytime soon,” he said.

‘Shame’

The #lift_immunity_now march began to take place in Lebanon as protesters gathered outside the home of Nabih Berri Speaker of Parliament where a committee meeting was being held.

“Security must be removed immediately,” said Ibrahim Hoteit, a spokesman for the families of those killed in the blast.

The plaintiff, who lost his brother in the crash, said suspending the election was “unfortunate, given the magnitude of the case”.

The protesters approached the Interior Ministry following media reports that the acting minister did not allow Bitar to question lawmaker Abbas Ibrahim about the blast.

There was nothing from the minister’s office.

Ibrahim said he was “not above the law”, but insisted against any “political reckoning”.

Outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab has been charged in connection with the investigation and Bitar has been cross-examined.

The judge also said that he wanted to cross-examine former state minister of state Yusef Fenianos.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the UN to investigate the blast.

Bitar became the main investigator of the blast after his successor, Judge Fadi Sawan, was removed in February following a request from two former prime ministers who ordered him to blow up.

Sawan sued three former ministers and the outgoing prime minister, Hassan Diab, for negligence. But he refused to be questioned as a skeptic, accusing him of judging his powers.