Mashnouq to File 'Suspicion' Lawsuit, Diab to Return to Lebanon

Ex-interior minister and incumbent MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq will file a “legitimate suspicion” lawsuit before the Court of Cassation to ask that Judge Tarek Bitar be replaced as the lead investigative judge into the Beirut port blast catastrophe, al-Akhbar newspaper said on Tuesday.

The report comes a day after the Court of Appeals dismissed requests filed by Mashnouq and two other ex-ministers for Bitar’s removal from the case.

Ex-PM Hassan Diab, who has been subpoenaed by Bitar as a suspect, will meanwhile return to Lebanon in mid-October from the United States, where he has been on a family visit since several weeks, al-Akhbar added.

The daily also said that families of some detainees in the case will begin acting to demand their release, “especially that they have been detained for more than 10 months.”

The families will “form a committee and appoint a number of lawyers,” sources from the families told al-Akhbar.