Judge Rizkallah dismisses Oueidat's lawsuit against Bitar

Judge Habib Rizkallah issued an indictment Thursday in the case filed by former state prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat against Judge Tarek Bitar, the investigative judge in the Beirut port explosion case, on charges of "impersonating an investigative judge and usurping authority."

Rizkallah decided to dismiss the case against Bitar because “Oueidat had recused himself from the case as state prosecutor and therefore lacked the legal standing to prosecute Bitar.”

Oueidat had in charged Bitar with "rebelling against the judiciary" and slapped him with a travel ban. He said that he charged Bitar in order to "prevent sedition."

Bitar had charged several high-level officials, including Oueidat, over the blast.

Authorities in Lebanon say the August 4, 2020 explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.

The blast was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring more than 6,500.

Bitar resumed his investigation last year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted following a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign against him.

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who both took office last year, have vowed to uphold the independence of the judiciary in a country plagued by official impunity.

Officials named in the port explosion investigation had filed a flurry of lawsuits seeking to hamper its progress.