Lebanese authorities have failed time and again to hold anyone responsible for the 2020 explosion that decimated the Lebanese capital.
Three years have passed since the city of Beirut was nearly turned to rubble by history’s biggest non-nuclear explosion, which killed well over 200 people and injured thousands.
In the intervening time, no official has been held accountable for allowing a vast stockpile of industrial chemical ammonium nitrate to be haphazardly stored in the heart of Beirut for seven years.
The dangerous chemicals ignited on 4 August 2020, creating a massive shockwave that tore through several neighborhoods, causing over $15 billion in damage. According to experts, had the blast not happened by the sea, the entire city of Beirut would have been wiped off the map, as the shockwave was felt as far away as Cyprus.
“This is a day of commemoration, mourning, and protest against the Lebanese state that politicizes our cause and interferes in the judiciary … The judiciary is shackled, justice is out of reach, and the truth is shrouded,” Rima al-Zahed, whose brother was killed in the explosion, told AFP on Friday.