/Agencia Anadolu
Lebanon’s Minister of Information, Paul Morcos, stated that an indictment will be issued in the coming months for the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, adding that the investigation has entered its “final stages.”
“The judicial investigations no longer face obstructions under the mandate of the current government,” Morcos told the Anadolu agency on the sidelines of a sit-in organized by the relatives of the victims on the sixth anniversary of the explosion.
The minister did not offer further details on the course of the inquiries or on the obstacles they had faced.
The gathering took place near the Beirut Port, in front of a monument to the firefighters who died in the blast, where dozens of relatives of the victims renewed their demand that the truth be revealed and responsibilities be assigned.
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion in the Beirut port area left more than 220 dead and nearly 7,000 wounded, in addition to causing widespread devastation in the Lebanese capital.
According to official estimates, the blast originated in Warehouse 12, where approximately 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate seized from a cargo ship had been stored since 2014.
The investigation into the tragedy has been stalled for years by political and judicial obstacles, with no formal charge having been issued to date.
“As relatives of the victims and as all Lebanese, we are pushing to reach the truth, to know at what point this case stands and how and when it will conclude. We trust that the judiciary will bring this case to its end,” stated the Minister of Social Affairs, Hanin al-Sayyed, who lost her mother in the explosion.
“The explosion case is among the government’s priorities,” she concluded.
