BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday urged the judiciary to issue a long-awaited indictment over the 2020 Beirut port blast, on the eve of the catastrophe’s sixth anniversary.
“The issuing of the indictment by the investigating judge has become a necessity that can no longer be delayed,” Aoun said in a statement.
The massive Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, killed more than 220 people, injured more than 6,500 and damaged swathes of the capital.
Lebanese authorities have said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been stored haphazardly for years, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.
Nobody has been held accountable for the disaster, with victims and their families still demanding justice in a country long plagued by official impunity.
