Hariri Urges Transparent Int’l Probe, Lifting of ‘All’ Immunities

Ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday, in a statement on the eve of the first anniversary of the Beirut port blast, that “the devastating blast isn’t a platform for verbal contests and political exploitation of the afflicted citizens’ grief.”

He warned against “flooding the judicial track with populist directives to conceal the truth.”

He urged to “liberate justice from political duels and media judgments” instead of “launching electoral campaigns and bribing the Lebanese public opinion with a justice on demand.”

Hariri added that “justice has two bases: an international investigation committee, or suspending the legal and constitutional restrictions.”

He added that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has revealed the truth about the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and “determined the identity of the criminal,” but the truth about other murders remains unknown.

He named Kamal Jumblat, Rashid Karami, Renee Moawad, Dany Chamoun, Elie Hobeika, Mufti Hassan Khaled, Nazim al-Qadri, as well as al-Salam and al-Taqwa mosques’ explosions.

He also named Walid Eido, Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, George Hawi, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, François Hajj, Mohammed Shatah, Wissam al-Hassan, Wissam Eid and “dozens of other crimes.”

Hariri also mentioned the assassination attempts on Marwan Hamadeh, May Chidiac and Elias Murr, pointing out that most of the crimes that were referred to the Judicial Council were “blown away by the political wind.”

He cautioned that there will be no justice if the Beirut port crime gets “lost in the sea of consolation prizes to vent public anger.”

“There is no justice without accountability, no accountability without truth, and no truth without a transparent international investigation or the lifting of immunities -- all immunities from the top of the pyramid to the bottom,” Hariri added.

The ex-PM voiced his solidarity with Beirut and with the families of the victims, saying that August 4 is “a day of national grief” and concluding his statement with prayers for the victims, the country and the Lebanese afflicted by a pandemic amid an economic and financial crisis.