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Yesterday, Lebanon donned a shroud of mourning, haunted as it is by the specter of a catastrophe that cast its ominous shadow three years ago. On August 4, 2020, Beirut’s port became the stage of a silent apocalypse, a non-nuclear explosion of unparalleled magnitude that claimed 220 lives and shattered the existence of the 6,500 injured. Three years have since elapsed, but cries for justice have only collided with a veritable wall of politicization which has relegated any hope of justice to a labyrinth of impunity.
The monster of this tragedy was birthed in the den of a warehouse where unsupervised ammonium nitrate was lying in wait, nurtured by the repeated negligence of those in charge. A detonation then erupted, making the skies over Beirut weep and plunging the city into an endless twilight.
In this half-light, the victims’ families continue to raise the torch of truth.
As time has passed, the gears of justice have seized up, and the truth has been eclipsed. None of the targets of the investigation are in jail any longer. An international inquiry, a quest of the bereaved families, was swept away by the winds of opposition from Lebanese authorities. They are indicted for having hindered the local investigation, in a country where the economy is teetering on the brink of destruction and political schisms have fractured the judicial system.
Judge after judge have painted a desolate picture. The first judge, tasked with the inquiry in 2020, was forced to pass on the torch after indicting former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers. His successor, Tarek Bitar, had to confront the same political demons. His investigation found itself in a 13-month hibernation, besieged by torrents of political prosecution and suffocating pressures.
However, Judge Bitar, despite the months-long absence of his footsteps from the corridors of the courthouse, continues his quest for justice in the shadows, like a silent knight. His vow to the families of the victims still resonates: to bring the indictment to light, even in the face of the storm of injustice.
Three years post-cataclysm, Lebanon stands at a crossroads of destiny: to succumb to the merciless verdict of injustice or to reclaim the torch of struggle?
