Beirut:
A report released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday concluded there was sturdy proof to recommend some Lebanese officials knew about and tacitly accepted the lethal dangers posed by ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port ahead of the fatal blast there on Aug. 4 last year.
The explosion, brought on by the chemical substances stored unsafely at the port for years, killed more than 200 folks, injured thousands and destroyed swathes of Lebanon’s capital.
The report by the international rights watchdog contained more than 700 pages of findings and documents. Its investigation also concluded there was proof that many Lebanese authorities had been criminally negligent below Lebanese law.
HRW based its report on official documents it reviewed and on many interviews with top rated officials like the president, the caretaker prime minister and the head of the country’s state safety.
The investigation trailed events from 2014 onwards following the shipment was brought to Beirut port and tracked repeated warnings of danger to a variety of official bodies.
“Evidence strongly suggests that some government officials foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could result in and tacitly accepted the risk of the deaths occurring,” the report stated.
It referred to as on the United Nations Human Rights Council to mandate an investigation into the blast and on foreign governments to impose human rights and corruption sanctions on officials.
A Lebanese investigation into the blast, led by Judge Tarek Bitar, has stalled. Politicians and senior safety officials are however to be questioned and requests to lift their immunity have been hindered.
The HRW report stated President Michel Aoun, caretaker prime minister Hassan Diab, the director common of state safety Tony Saliba and other former ministers wanted for questioning by judge Bitar, had failed to take action to guard the common public regardless of possessing been informed of the dangers.
Reuters sought comment on the report’s findings from Aoun, Diab and Saliba. The presidential palace provided no comment. There was no instant response from Diab and Saliba.
Aoun stated on Friday he was prepared to testify and that no one was above the law.
A document seen by Reuters that was sent just more than two weeks ahead of the blast showed the president and prime minister had been warned about the safety danger posed by the chemical substances stored at the port and that they could destroy the capital.
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