The probe into the catastrophic Beirut port explosion was frozen on Tuesday for the second time in less than three weeks after two politicians wanted for questioning filed a new complaint against the lead investigator, a judicial source said.
Bitar is under enormous pressure from groups that have been accusing his probe of political bias and mounting a smear campaign against him. The leader of the powerful, heavily armed Shi’ite political movement Hezbollah announced on Monday it wanted Bitar removed from the case.The probe was suspended in late September on the basis of a complaint questioning Bitar’s impartiality. A court rejected the complaint on procedural grounds, allowing him to continue.
Shortly before being informed of the latest complaint, Bitar had issued an arrest warrant for one of the politicians who filed it, former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, a senior politician close to Hezbollah.Khalil, a senior member of the Shi’ite Amal movement, was not immediately reachable for comment.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah voiced his harshest criticism yet of Bitar on Monday when he called for his replacement in a televised address, saying he was biased and politicized.The remarks came weeks after Wafik Safa, a senior Hezbollah official, was said to have warned Bitar the group would remove him from the inquiry, according to a journalist and a judicial source.