Forner Prime Minister Hassan Diab was issued another subpoena by Judge Tariq Bitar, the judicial investigator of the Beirut Port Explosion, after he failed to attend his previous interrogation session.
Judge Bitar referred the subpoena, which summons Diab for interrogation on September 20th, to the Discriminatory Public Prosecution for implementation.
That was followed by news spreading of Diab leaving Lebanon to the United States, barely a week before the scheduled session.
According to the newspaper Al-Sahm that reportedly spoke to Diab inside the plane in Istanbul, the former PM explained that he indeed was traveling to visit his two sons studying in the United States.
Diab told the newspaper that he had previously announced his intention to travel and the purpose of his trip during a televised interview. He explained that he had waited for the new cabinet to be formed so he can go visit his sons whom he misses.
Diab is planning to stay four weeks in the United States before returning to Lebanon, he told the newspaper, as his sons live in two different states.
It is to note that Diab’s wife and daughter are reportedly in Lebanon, both at their jobs; his daughter at the St. Jude Hospital, and his wife, Dr. Nawar al-Mawlawi, at the Lebanese American University (LAU) where she is a lecturer.
Meanwhile, as Diab has taken off for 4 weeks, his questioning and the course of the investigation will have to wait, as well as the families of the victims that have been already kept on hold for over a year.
