Beirut: The judge who investigated Port Beirut’s explosion last year issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for former Minister of Public Works Youssef Finianos after he failed to appear to be questioned, report the National News Office.
Finianos, Ally Hezbollah was approved by the United States to do with a group that was considered a terrorist organization, could not be contacted immediately for comments.
A large explosion of August 2020 was caused by a large number of ammonium nitrates which had been stored without stopping in the port for years.
The arrest warrant was the first for former ministers arising from the investigation.
The explosion killed hundreds, injured thousands of people, and destroyed most of the city but more than a year later, no highly responsible officials, made many Lebanese people.
Judge Tarek Bitar, who now leads an investigation into a large explosion, has issued a request in July to question former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and other top officials.
They included former Minister of Public Works Finianos, who was the predecessor of Fadi Sawan’s Bitar had been charged with negligence.
All have denied mistakes.
Sawan has been excluded from an investigation in February after the court gave a request for his dismissal by two other former ministers, he was charged with negligence for disaster – Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter.
Diab, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, will be questioned on September 20, although it is not clear whether he will return for the session after leaving Beirut on Tuesday for the United States.
Diab cannot be contacted immediately for comments.
Bitar issued a court call for Diab on August 26 after he failed to appear to be questioned.
On Thursday, the families of the victims showed outside the Beirut Justice Palace and blocked the nearest road, angered due to lack of progress in the investigation.
“We will start taking peaceful steps,” Ibrahim Hoteit, spokesman for the victims told MTV local television channels from the demonstration.