Families of Beirut Port blast victims urge action to prevent case from being forgotten

The families of the victims of the Beirut Port explosion called on Lebanon’s courts of cassation to rule on the pending motions seeking the removal and transfer of Judge Tarek Bitar from the case.

The association said: “We, the families of the victims, speak today not only from a place of pain, but from a place of rights — rights that do not expire, blood that will not be forgotten and a case that will not be buried no matter how strong the storms or how priorities change.”

It condemned what it described as attempts to turn the port case into a forgotten file, to reduce the blood of the victims to procedural measures and to keep justice hostage to political calculations.

The group called for “a free, independent and courageous judiciary that answers only to its conscience,” demanding the lifting of all immunities protecting those involved, regardless of who they are, the full disclosure of the truth without omission or dilution, and fair accountability for all those responsible for the disaster.

Addressing the international community, the association said: “The world’s silence regarding this crime amounts to indirect complicity in burying the truth. What is needed is a clear position and genuine support for the path toward justice.”