Half a Decade of Silence: Beirut’s quest for justice endures
Five years on from the Beirut Port Blast, its impacts on its victims continue to go largely unaddressed. While the international community has moved on from the Blast that consumed international attention for weeks in its wake, a complex and convoluted investigation has inched on in Lebanon. On this anniversary of the Blast, Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) continues to demand a transparent, independent investigation by Lebanese authorities into the Blast and requests that judicial action elsewhere remain committed to justice for the victims.
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Voices from Beirut
It is important to continue centering the voices of those that the explosion most impacted. The Blast killed over 220 and injured over 7,000, maiming the city of Beirut. LAW has long supported victims of the Blast, family members of those whose lives were taken in the tragedy, including children like Issac Oehlers (2-year-old) and Elias Khoury (15-year-old).
Today, little has changed as a city of over two million people cope with what happened on 4 August 2020. LAW itself faced the consequences of the Blast, having its office, about one kilometer away, destroyed. Dealing with such prolific and shared trauma is challenging; however, the road to recovery must begin with the truth about what happened and accountability for those responsible for the explosion.
Investigation in Lebanon
In the days after the Blast, Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced a special investigative committee to look into what happened. By the end of August 2020, Lebanon’s Higher Judicial Council referred the investigation into the Blast to Judge Fadi Sawan. Sawan placed 25 customs and port officials in detention and questioned numerous government personnel.
As early as 13 November 2020, LAW was warning of Lebanese authorities’ failure to properly investigate the explosion in a report on the publicly available facts at the time, the progress of the Lebanese investigations, and the significant restrictions on access to justice in Lebanon. In December 2020, Prime Minister Diab and three other ministers, including Finance Minister at the time of the Blast, Ali Hassan Khalil, and two former Public Works Ministers, including Ghazi Zeaiter, were charged over the Blast. Zeaiter and Khalil challenged Sawan’s legitimacy and the Court of Cassation removed him from the investigation due to a “conflict of interest” because his house was damaged in the explosion.
The High Judicial Council then appointed Judge Tarek Bitar to continue the investigation. Throughout 2021 and 2022 the investigation was stalled as disputes over immunity and additional charges were litigated. On 23 January 2023, Bitar reopened the investigation based on a legal opinion that he said reinstated his power to continue the probe. Lebanon’s top public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, Zeaiter’s brother-in-law, responded by releasing all the remaining prisoners in the probe on 25 January 2023 and then charged Bitar for illegally reopening the investigation, again halting his work for another two years.
President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam both showed support for judicial independence and accountability, Salam specifically demanding justice for the victims of the Blast, during their appointments in January 2025. On 16 January 2025, Bitar resumed his work, committing to a series of new investigative inquiries of government and port employees, including the ex-ministers who were accused of negligence, ex-prime minister Hassan Diab, and Ghassan Oueidat. To date, Oueidat, Zeaiter, and Khalil have refused to appear for questioning.
On this 5th anniversary of the Blast, President Aoun doubled down on his commitment to justice for the Blast, stating “justice will not die” and that “reckoning is inevitable.” He highlighted the Blast investigation as a continuing “top priority” of his office. Yesterday, Prime Minister Salam also reiterated the priority of justice for the Blast, stating in a meeting with victims, “There can be no other option but for the truth to prevail.”
Accountability Served?
Though the investigation in Lebanon has been met with obstruction, corruption, and delay, other jurisdictions have sought to deliver justice to the victims of the Blast. The Blast was an international incident, involving a shipment of ammonium nitrate from Georgia bound for Mozambique on a Moldovan flagged vessel. It had a globalized impact, as those killed were nationals of Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan, Palestine, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, and the United States, in addition to Lebanon. Therefore, international justice has always played a central role in the incident. This began with calls for an independent international investigation in the immediate aftermath of the Blast.
International calls for justice have centered around a demand for a United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) to mandate an independent fact-finding mission into the Blast. LAW was one dozens of organizations and numerous individuals that demanded such a fact-finding mission in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The UN HRC has, however, continued to fail to act.
Two extraterritorial jurisdiction cases have sought to deliver justice for the Blast. In August 2021, the Beirut Bar led an effort to pursue civil accountability in a London court by filing a case against Savaro Ltd., which was said to have sold the ammonium nitrate that ignited. Savaro is in London’s corporate registry but attempted to dissolve before the lawsuit could proceed. British courts stopped the dissolution and in June 2022, demanded Savaro reveal its true ownership. In June 2023, Savaro was ordered to pay four victims of the Blast or their immediate family members a combined one million dollars in damages after being found liable for the deaths and injuries. Because of Savaros’s insolvency, it has not paid the damages.
In July 2022, nine victims of the blast that were US citizens or family of US citizens, filed a 250-million-dollar civil suit against a U.S.-Norwegian company called TGS, which owned a subsidiary, Spectrum Geo, that initially brought the ship carrying the ammonium nitrate to Beirut to pick up additional cargo. This additional cargo, 160 tonnes of seismic survey equipment, is reported to have rendered the ship unseaworthy, leaving it anchored off Beirut for years and eventually causing the ammonium nitrate on the ship to be offloaded into Beirut’s port. After procedural maneuvers by TGS’s lawyers delaying the progress of the litigation, the case is now in its pre-trail discovery phase and continuing.
A French investigative team has also participated in the Blast investigation. Forensic specialists arrived from France the day after the explosion, and have developed evidence related to the incident. In April 2025, a French judicial delegation briefed Bitar on their investigation, at Bitar’s request.
The Path Forward
Five years on, the shared trauma of the Bierut Port Blast continues to ripple across the city. The lack of answers and accountability perpetuates the trauma and pain of the victims. The fact that there has been active political and judicial interference that has obstructed access truth and justice, adds insult to the injury visited on Beirut. As the country’s leaders finally call for the investigation to be completed, promising Bitar will face no more interference, there is hope that the victims, and the city itself, will find clarity, and peace in that clarity.
LAW will continue to support victims of the Blast however it can, including by seeking out new justice opportunities where possible and supporting local, survivor-led initiatives. Today, President Aoun said, while discussing the spontaneous and massive volunteer cleanup effort in the days after the explosion, “This spirit of solidarity will guide us to justice and to the rebuilding of our country on foundations of justice, transparency and accountability.” As Lebanon seeks a political transition rooted in judicial integrity, lasting peace and national cohesion, and accountability in combatting corruption, justice for the victims of the Beirut Blast is the foundation for the path forward.