Ex-PMs React Angrily to Bitar's Measure against Diab

Judge Tarek Bitar’s decision to issue a subpoena ordering security forces to bring caretaker PM Hassan Diab to interrogation has infuriated the so-called club of former premiers, which comprises ex-PMs Saad Hariri, Najib Miqati, Fouad Saniora and Tammam Salam.

Bitar issued the subpoena after Diab refrained from attending an interrogation session on Thursday. The judge scheduled a new session for September 20. According to a judicial source, security forces have been ordered to bring Diab to the main courthouse in Beirut 24 hours before the session.

In a joint statement, the former premiers lashed out at the decision, warning that “never in the history of Lebanon has a subpoena been issued for the head of the Lebanese government in the manner that has been written by the investigative judge into the port bombing crime, Judge Tarek Bitar.”

“This precedent is dangerous in all of its political, national and constitutional aspects and it is a non-innocent measure exploiting the law and the fury of the victims’ families to target the Premiership without the other top positions of the Lebanese state,” the statement said.

Reminding of President Michel Aoun’s acknowledgement of his knowledge of the presence of the ammonium nitrate shipment at the port, the ex-PMs noted that the President “showed negligence and refrained from doing anything of practical value to avert that humanitarian, economic and urban disaster that hit Lebanon.”

“This means that the President’s immunity should also be lifted regarding this dangerous crime that hit Lebanon, and accordingly the investigative judge would be liberated of texts that do not grant him legal and constitutional rights to try presidents and others,” the former premiers added.

They also charged that Bitar’s measure is “politically suspicious because it complements attempts that have not stopped for years to overthrow the Taef Accord, break the prestige of the Premiership and besiege its position in the political system.”