Beirut blast investigator resumes work after more than a year

BEIRUT, 24 January 2023, (TON): The judge investigating the August 2020 Beirut port explosion has resumed his work after the probe was frozen for more than one year, Lebanese media reported and a judicial source said.

The investigation into the explosion that killed 220 people and shattered Beirut has been derailed by political resistance from ruling factions and legal challenges against the lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

The judicial source told Reuters Bitar had resumed his work based on a legal study that challenged the basis upon which it was frozen. It was not immediately clear who had prepared the study.

The explosion, one of the most powerful non-nuclear blasts on record, was caused by hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been unloaded at the port in 2013.

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