Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Lebanese authorities of

• Published date: 04 August 2021
• Publication title: Daily News

The watchdog recommended an independent UN investigative mission conduct its own inquiry, and advocated for broad international sanctions against top officials.

The August 4, 2020 explosion of a shipment of ammonium nitrate fertiliser haphazardly stored at the Beirut port for six years killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital, in one of the world’s largest non-nuclear blasts.

Victims’ families and the broader public widely saw the explosion as the result of incompetence and corruption on the part of the ruling class, but one year on, no official has been brought to justice.

A 126-page HRW report, released one day before the first anniversary of the tragedy, identified top officials in the government, customs, the army and security agencies who were aware of the shipment and its dangers but failed to take necessary action.

“Multiple Lebanese authorities were, at a minimum, criminally negligent under Lebanese law in their handling of the ammonium nitrate shipment,” said the report, which draws on interviews and official correspondence, including previously unpublished material.

“Evidence strongly suggests that some government officials foresaw the death that the ammonium nitrate’s presence in the port could result in and tacitly accepted the risk of the deaths occurring,” it said.

The report accused authorities of violating the right to life and said that their actions could amount to “homicide” under domestic law.

The rights group recommended sanctions against “officials implicated in ongoing violations of human rights related to the August 4 blast and efforts to undermine accountability”.

Sanctions, HRW said...