Report: Safa Met Judges Monday over Baalbek Nitrates, Not Port Case
Senior Hizbullah official Wafiq Safa visited the Justice Palace on Monday and met with Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud and State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, informed sources said.
The news comes after reports said that Safa has sent a threatening verbal message to the lead judge probing the Beirut port blast case, Tarek Bitar.
The sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Wednesday that the “threat” was made by Safa during his talks with Abboud and Oueidat. But State Prosecution sources told the daily that the Oueidat-Safa meeting “did not tackle the port blast investigations.”
“The Hizbullah official did not mention the measures that Judge Bitar is taking against politicians who are allies of the party,” the newspaper quoted the State Prosecution sources as saying.
“The discussions with Safa touched on the issue of seizing a truck carrying more than 20 tons of ammonium nitrate in a Bekaa town (Baalbek) that is party of Hizbullah’s environment,” the sources added.
“This discussion was made in the presence of State Commissioner to Military Court Judge Fadi Akiki, who is overseeing the preliminary investigations in this file,” the sources noted.
The news of Bitar receiving a threat from Safa had infuriated the families of the explosion victims on Tuesday, prompting them to say that they “will stand as guards outside the judge’s home, in the face of Wafiq Safa and other parties.”
The families also called for “respecting the judiciary and the decisions it is taking in this file.”
LBCI TV reporter Edmond Sassine had on Tuesday posted a tweet alleging that Safa had threatened Bitar through a third person.
"Hizbullah through Wafiq Safa has sent a threatening message to Judge Tarek Bitar," Sassine tweeted.
"We're totally fed up with you. We will go with you until the end in the legal course and if it doesn't work out we will uproot you," Sassine quoted Safa as telling Bitar through a third person.
TV networks meanwhile said that State Prosecutor Oueidat has asked Bitar to prepare a report about "what's being circulated about a verbal message that he indirectly received from Mr. Wafiq Safa."
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