Former Lebanese President Michel Aoun today filed a complaint for “scratchers, slanders and disclosure of confidential information,” after it was reported that the prosecutor asked for his inclusion in the criminal proceedings about the explosion in Beirut port in 2020.
© Reuters
16/09/2026
by
Lusa
Michel Aoun
“ ANDwe are facing serious damage to the proper functioning of justice, an attempt to distort the facts, conceal the real ones responsible and manufacture a media conviction outside the judiciary”, says the complaint filed by Aoun lawyer Wadih Aql, and released by the Lebanese state agency NNA.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the prosecutor had asked Judge Tarek Bitar, responsible for the investigation, to initiate legal proceedings against the former head of state for allegedly having prior knowledge of the presence of ammonium nitrate in the port and the associated risks.
Aoun’s defense, which held the Presidency between 2016 and 2022, considered that the disclosure of information related to the investigation aims to “distract the Lebanese’ attention from their reality and their tragic social, economic and national situation.”.
The lawyer classified the information disclosed as “scratchers” and argued that its publication, under the pretext of “judicial leaks” from the Attorney General’s report, “is not a legitimate journalistic work”.
According to the defense, the complaint “does not anticipate the judicial verdict”, but intends to prevent “the flight from turning into a sentence, that the rumor becomes a presumed decision and that disinformation is erected as a supposed truth imposed on public opinion”.
The lawyer also defended the course of the old President and General, 92 years old, stating that Aoun “dedicated his life” to the defense of Lebanon and its sovereignty and that, after the explosion, sought to ensure the discovery of the truth and accountability of the guilty.
The explosion of August 4, 2020 was caused by about 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored for years in the port of Beirut without the necessary safety conditions.
The outbreak killed more than 200 people, caused about 7,000 wounded and devastated extensive areas of the Lebanese capital.
The investigation has been marked by successive political and judicial disputes and has been paralyzed for several years before Bitar resumed the process.
The magistrate even subpoenaed several political and judicial figures, including former Prime Minister Hassan Diab and former prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, in an investigation that seeks to determine responsibilities for the presence and storage of ammonium nitrate and for the absence of measures to prevent the tragedy.