Blast victims' relatives rally near parliament ahead of presidential election session

Activists and relatives of the Beirut port blast victims rallied Thursday in front of the parliament ahead of another presidential election session.

They are protesting years of what they say is political interference in the probe.

The Aug. 4, 2020 explosion killed more than 215 people, injured 6,000 and devastated entire neighborhoods of the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers, detonated in a port warehouse.

It later emerged the chemical was shipped to Lebanon in 2013 and stored improperly at the warehouse. A handful of senior political and security officials knew of its presence and the threat it imposed on the city but failed to take action to remove it.

Judge Tarek Bitar’s investigation into the disaster has been frozen since December 2021 after politicians he had charged in the case filed legal challenges to the probe. No one has been tried or convicted over the blast.

Some MPs, including MP Razi al-Hajj, MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad, and change MPs Firas Hamdan and Halima Kaakour joined the rally. So did Kataeb MP Sami Gemayel.

Kaakour called for the independence of the Judiciary and for "radical solutions".

William Noun, who lost his brother firefighter Joe in the blast, said that some MPs will support the families' cause in today's session.

"We are here today to see which MPs are with us and which ones are against us," Noun said.