Judicial investigator Judge Tarek Bitar intends to question Lebanese President Michel Aoun over the Beirut Port explosion, Nidaa Al-Watan reported on Saturday.
According to the newspaper, trusted sources have confirmed that Judge Bitar, who is leading the Beirut blast probe, is set to visit the Baabda presidential palace to question President Aoun.
The move is based on Aoun’s prior statement that he had been aware of the presence of ammonium nitrate at the Port of Beirut before the August 4 explosion.
The news comes a day after President Aoun declared his readiness to testify over the Beirut Explosion.
During a meeting on Friday with State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat, the President expressed his “absolute willingness to testify over the port explosion” if the judicial investigator wished to listen to him.
Judge Bitar is set to hold successive and intensive sessions throughout the next two weeks, during which he is expected to receive an answer regarding his request to lift the immunity of General Security Chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, sources told Nidaa Al-Watan.
He is also pursuing his request to have the immunity of State Security Chief Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba lifted.
Earlier this week, former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zaiter, and Youssef Fenianos lost their immunity as lawyers, but Khalil and Zaiter retain their immunity as MPs.
