Beirut: Lebanon police fired tear gas on Tuesday during a longitude with demonstrators outside the house of the Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi, accused of holding out an investigation into a large port explosion last summer.
Protests, referred to by relatives of the victims of the explosion of August 4, swelled at night, with dozens of demonstrators flowing to join the family who raided the Beirut House which was heavily guarded by Fahmi.
The crowd was angry, demanding responsibility as a birthday approach to the worst peaceful disaster of Lebanon, driven back by riot police who swung the stick and fired tear gas to disperse them.
The AFP correspondents saw a man with bleeding wounds in his head after he was beaten by security forces, and the paramedics treated the protesters to die weakly gas.
The detonation of a large fertilizer pile in the summer port killed more than 200 people and destroyed the capital’s great plots.
Investigation launched after the tragedy does not have an official to account.
The victim’s family said political interference had agreed to the process.
Earlier this month, Fahmi rejected requests by the judge who investigated the explosion to question Abbas Ibrahim, Head of the General Security Bureau, one of the country’s major security institutions.
“By refusing to appoint Abbas Ibrahim’s legal immunity, the Minister of Home Affairs was among us, relatives of explosion victims, and justice,” said Paul Najjar, who lost his three-year-old daughter Alexandra for the explosion.
Fahmi “killed us for the second time,” he told AFP outside the minister’s house.
During the anger protest Tuesday, relatives knocked down the gate at the entrance to the Fahmi apartment building, and featured the deceased portrait at the emergency temple and piled up the nearby white coffin.
“This is a coffin of our children,” said Najjar.
Stand-off, which began in the afternoon, increased with the coming of dozens of demonstrators angry after sunset.
Protests sung: “People demand the overthrow of the regime!” Last month, rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the UN investigation into the explosion, considering that the inquiry of Lebanon was jammed.
Tarek Judge Bitar demanded that the parliament lifted the immunity of the three former ministers so he could continue with an investigation but parliamentarians had asked for more evidence before deciding whether to override immunity.
Bitar this week refused the request of parliament, the trial source told AFP.
In February, the predecessor of the Bitar as the main judge in the probe was transferred by the court, who had questioned his impartiality because his house was broken in the explosion.
Fadi Judge Sawan has issued allegations of the caregiver of Premier Hassan Diab and three former ministers in December for “negligence and led to death in hundreds”, triggered anger from politicians.
Diab resigned after the explosion but had still behaved as the prime minister of caregivers as political leaders who divided bitterly on their government substitute.
Relatives of Lebanon Blast victims of snapping with police
