The French judges enquired about the suspension of the Lebanese investigation, which prevented the independent French inquiry into the deaths of three French citizens in the port explosion.
Given that Judge Sabouh Sleiman is the one who represents the Court of Cassation in this case, the judicial team, led by Judge Nicolas Obertin, first met with him for over an hour and a half before meeting with Judge Tarek al-Bitar, the judicial investigator, for four hours.
According to sources following their movements, the French judges asked Judge Sabouh Sleiman to assist them in reviewing the Lebanese investigation in this file. Still, the latter told them that Judge al-Bitar was the only person with authority to do so.
The French judges engaged with Judge al-Bitar in a lengthy conversation about the causes behind the obstruction of the investigations.
Sources told Asharq al-Awsat that Judge al-Bitar "explained the stages of the investigation, what is left of it, and the obstacles it faces."
The same sources stressed that al-Bitar "refused to inform the delegation of the investigation's content or provide any document, considering that the case has been taken out of his hands due to the lawsuits filed against him.
He nevertheless spoke to them generally and within the bounds of the law, and he pledged to help once he resumes the investigation.
The judicial investigator does not appear to be about to resign from this case or give in to the pressure of those trying to get him to do so.
The investigation "will continue and will not end or surrender to the will of obstruction," Judge al-Bitar assured the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
He continued, "I hope that the judiciary will find legal exits that will allow the investigation to resume in a normal manner, and that it will be a radical solution, not a temporary one.
The siblings of two victims killed in the explosion and attorneys Cecile Roukoz and Pierre Gemayel met with the French judges at the Palace of Justice. They shared their experiences and the pain experienced by the prosecution team and the victims' families.
Lawyers Roukoz and Gemayel told Asharq al-Awsat that they "asked the French judiciary to help the families of the victims establish the truth, particularly after French President Emmanuel Macron previously made a categorical promise to the Lebanese to assist them in learning the truth about who destroyed their capital and killed its citizens, but these promises have since fallen through."
They also expressed to the delegation "their dissatisfaction over the failure to give the Lebanese judiciary satellite images."
They pointed out that the French judges "made it clear that they have a judicial mission and that the judiciary's work is fully independent of the political authority.
The judges also said they would convey this desire to the official authorities in Paris.
The families of those killed in the port explosion are holding a sit-in today, Thursday, outside the Palace of Justice in Beirut, in opposition to the suspension of the inquiry into the case.
They will request a meeting with the French judicial mission to discuss their hardship and the political authorities' persistence in sabotaging the Lebanese inquiry.
The families will also request the French state to assist in establishing an international fact-finding committee.
- Financial investigations file
Additionally, the European judicial delegations continued their investigations in Beirut in the financial files.
They listened to witnesses Raed Charafeddine, a former first deputy governor of the Banque du Liban, and Naaman Nadour, a BDL head of department, testify. The attorneys general at the Court of Cassation, Mirna Kallas and Imad Kabalan, also took part.
"Questions all revolved around the financial situation and banking operations, and most of them were directed at the "Forry" company owned by Raja Salameh, brother of Riad Salameh," a judicial source told Asharq al-Awsat.
The sources pointed out that "the European delegations have integrated, reinforced and professional files, and they are not in the stage of searching for evidence but are working on comparing the information they have with some testimonies and documents in Lebanon."
The Director of the Central Bank's Legal Department, Pierre Kanaan, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Audi, Samir Hanna, are due to testify before the European judges today, Thursday.