Charbel: My Statements on Antelias Blast Preliminary, Judiciary has the Final Say

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Saturday that his statements on Antelias blast were according to “preliminary security information”, stressing that the relevant judicial authority has the final decision in determining the truth.

Charbel’s press office issued a statement saying “what he (Charbel) mentioned relied on preliminary information built on preliminary security data, facts and testimonies obtained at the moment of the incident.”

Two men were killed in a parking lot in Antelias on Thursday when explosives they were handling detonated.

“Minister Charbel noted that the final decision in determining the truth goes back to the relevant judicial authority,” it said.

Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr pressed charges on Friday against unknown individuals suspected of being involved in the blast.

The suspects are charged with taking part with the victims, Hassan Nassar and Ihsan Diya, in preparing a bomb and detonating it in a parking lot in Antelias.

The press office stressed that “the interior minister’s statements that the explosion was a result of a personal disputes were based on (the information obtained), that the two victims arrived to the scene in a car that has legal papers seen on surveillance cameras, holding legitimate identification cards and a credit card that belongs to one of them.”

“In addition, one of the victim’s friends, who is a car dealer, testified that there are financial and personal disputes.”

The statement added: “the deformation of the two victims reveals that they were standing close, but the fragments from the dozens of small iron balls (wrapped around the explosive) that were found on the ground shows that the grenade was prepared to act as bomb.”