Michel Aoun files complaint over reports implicating him in port blast case

Former President Michel Aoun, represented by lawyer Wadih Akl, on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint, after media reports said the public prosecution has requested that he be indicted over the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

In the complaint Aoun accused certain parties of "insult, defamation, slander, false accusation, breach of investigation confidentiality and fabrication of falsehoods.

“In cases stained by blood, a rumor is not merely casual speech; rather, it constitutes a fresh act of aggression against the victims and an attempt to assassinate the truth before it reaches the sanctuary of justice,” Aoun said.

“The dissemination of rumors regarding the Beirut Port explosion -- under the guise of ‘judicial leaks’ purportedly drawn from the submissions of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation -- cannot be considered a legitimate media activity. If the leak is genuine, it raises suspicions of a breach of investigation confidentiality; if it is false, it raises suspicions of fabricating and spreading false news,” Aoun noted.

“In either case, we are facing a grave infringement upon the proper administration of justice, an attempt to distort facts, a move to obscure the true perpetrators, and an effort to manufacture a media-driven conviction outside the judicial process,” he said.

A Lebanese prosecutor on Tuesday requested that Aoun be indicted over the blast, asking the judge overseeing the case, Tarek Bitar, to "press charges against (former) president Aoun," a judicial official told Agence France-Presse, requesting anonymity.

The official added that charges were being sought against Aoun because he "had prior knowledge of the presence of ammonium nitrate at the port and its danger, without taking the necessary measures" or referring it to the country's Higher Defense Council.

The massive explosion on August 4, 2020 killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500 and laid waste to swathes of the capital.

Lebanese authorities have said the 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.

Nobody has been punished for the blast despite public anger and families of the blast victims demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity.

In March, a judicial official told AFP that judge Bitar had completed his probe.

He referred the case to the public prosecutor who was to study it, and prosecutor Mohammad Saab submitted his review on Tuesday, the official said.

The review specified the responsibility of more than 70 defendants, including current and former politicians, security and military officials, and civil servants, some of whom were previously charged by Bitar.

The charges remain up to Bitar, who could issue them in the coming weeks.

The case had been bogged down by political and legal wrangling since 2023, after Hezbollah led a campaign demanding Bitar's removal and dozens of lawsuits also sought to remove him from the case.

However, Bitar resumed his investigations last year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted.

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam took office following a 2023-2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which weakened the Lebanese armed group.

Since then, several legal impediments to Bitar's work have also been removed, including the lifting of a travel ban against him.