Ahead of the one-year memorial of the August 4 Beirut Port Explosion, politicians have suddenly shown incased interest in the blast investigation.
This comes after investigator Judge Tarek Bitar asked Parliament to lift immunities of high-ranking political and security officials, including former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zeaiter, and Nouhad Machnouk.
In response, MPs attempted to get a petition signed which, in essence, would get the investigation out of the hands of Judge Bitar. The petition was controversially referred to as the “petition of shame”.
After heavy backlash from the community and families of Beirut blast victims, many MPs began removing their names from the petition stating that they did not want to interfere with justice.
The latest politician to change his position on the matter is Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli, who initially signed and insisted on keeping his name on the “petition of shame”.
Now, Ferzli is expressing willingness to sign the proposal made by ex-PM Saad Hariri to suspend all constitutional and legal articles that grant immunities of all officials, including the President, PM, ministers, MPs, etc in relation to the blast case.
