Former Lebanese PM faces homicide charge over Beirut port blast

Former Lebanese prime minister Hassan Diab has been charged with homicide with probable intent over the devastating Beirut port explosions in 2020 that killed at least 218 people.

Tarek Bitar, a Lebanese judge investigating the explosions, has also charged Abbas Ibrahim, chief of Lebanese General Security, state security director Major General Tony Saliba, and former Lebanese army commander Jean Kahwaji. Bitar reopened the case this week after a year’s delay.

Primary investigations into the blast revealed that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at a decaying warehouse in the port since 2014 caused the explosions, which injured 7,000 people, caused $15bn in property damage, and left an estimated 300,000 others homeless. The deadly explosions were so massive that they were heard in Cyprus, some 240 km away. The blasts have been documented as the most powerful accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions in history.

Diab, an academic, became prime minister in January 2020 and resigned less than a week after the blast. He has previously been charged with negligence over the chemicals.