The President of the First Instance Court of Appeal in Beirut, Judge Habib Rizkallah, has stirred the stagnant waters of the Beirut port explosion case by sending a letter to the Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Ouaidat, requesting the correction of his accusation against the investigating judge in the port explosion case, Judge Tarek Bitar, for the crime of "impersonating an investigating judge," in order to be able to interrogate him. However, Rizkallah's step did not receive a response from Ouaidat, who challenged it.
Judicial sources told "Al-Anbaa" that Ouaidat "was surprised by Judge Rizkallah's request, which came eight months after his appointment as a judge to investigate the accusation against Bitar. He quickly filed an appeal against his request before the relevant indictment committee responsible for reviewing the validity of Judge Rizkallah’s decisions, considering that the committee does not exist and has not yet been formed, which means this case has entered a new complication similar to the complexities of the investigation with the defendants in the port case."
Ouaidat's step was accompanied by Article 64 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which states: "A judge of investigation may not decide to annul the public prosecutor's accusation if he finds it flawed in a way that makes his handling of the case incorrect; rather, he must decide to refrain from investigating due to this flaw, and the public prosecutor, if he does not correct the flaw, must appeal the decision of the investigating judge before the indictment committee."
With this development, Judge Rizkallah will not be able to hold any investigative session with Bitar unless the Higher Judicial Council forms a special indictment committee for this case and provides a definitive opinion on the prosecution's share. According to informed sources in the Beirut Courthouse, what transpired falls within the context of constraining the port case.
The sources believe that "the indictment committee will not see the light in the foreseeable future due to disputes among the members of the Higher Judicial Council regarding the committee and the proposed names for it, which means that the prosecution against Bitar has entered a tunnel that is difficult to exit before resolving the entire crisis of the judicial structure."
