Lebanese caretaker Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi has affirmed that he would not reconsider his refusal to grant permission to lift the immunity of General Security Director-General Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim.
Fahmi told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Wednesday that he would not back out of his decision, explaining that doing so would be “illegal.”
He also stressed that he had made his decision “with complete conviction,” rejecting the claim that his position regarding this case constitutes an interference in the work of the judiciary.
If that claim were true, the judiciary would not have asked for his opinion, Fahmi argued, adding that he would not allow himself to interfere in the judiciary’s work anyway.
Fahmi has been facing public outrage since he refused to grant the required approval for the lifting of Maj. Gen. Ibrahim’s immunity, which was requested by Judge Tarek Bitar, the lead judicial investigator in the Beirut Port explosion probe.
Answering a question on how he would respond to the anger, the official said: “I’m facing it with the law.”
On Tuesday night, families of victims of the August 4 explosion stormed Fahmi’s residence, demanding justice for the catastrophic incident that killed their loved ones.
