Former minister Machnouq appears before court in Beirut blast inquiry

Former Interior Minister Nohad Machnouq appeared in court Thursday for the first time before judge Tarek Bitar who is investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion, a judicial source told AFP.

The catastrophic blast on August 4, 2020 -- one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history -- devastated large parts of Beirut, killing more than 220 people and injuring over 6,500.

Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the incident in January after having been forced to suspend it in 2021 due to political pressure.

He was accused of bias, and several officials named in the probe -- including former interior minister Machnouq, who is suspected of "negligence and misconduct" -- launched a series of legal proceedings against him.

Bitar resumed his inquiry after Joseph Aoun was elected president and reformist Nawaf Salam appointed prime minister earlier this year, with both pledging to uphold judicial independence.

The devastating port blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tones of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been unsafely stored for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

The judicial source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the questioning of Machnouq on Thursday focused on a report he received on April 5, 2014 -- when he was still interior minister -- about the detention of a ship in Lebanese waters whose crew had requested permission to set sail.

The probe into the blast was halted after Hezbollah, long a dominant force in Lebanese politics but now weakened by its latest war with Israel, accused Bitar of bias and demanded his removal.

Two French investigative judges are expected in Beirut at the end of the month to present Bitar with evidence gathered by French authorities, as three French nationals were among the victims, a judicial source has previously said.

On 11 April, two former top security officials also appeared before Bitar for the first time.