Beirut blast judge postpones interrogations over dispute

The Lebanese judge leading the investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion said Monday he has postponed questioning of officials over a dispute with the country’s top prosecutor.

Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his probe last month after a 13-month hiatus amid vehement political and legal pushback, which now threatens to derail the investigation once again.

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Reopening the case, he had charged several senior former and incumbent officials, including Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat.

Oueidat retaliated by charging the judge with “usurping power” and insubordination, and slapped Bitar with a travel ban.

Bitar told reporters on Monday he has postponed all interrogations planned for February due to the “lack of cooperation” from the prosecutor’s office, without setting new dates.

“There are charges accusing me of usurping power that must be resolved,” he said from his office in the Lebanese capital.

If these charges “are proven, then I must be held to account, and if the contrary happens, then I must continue the investigation,” Bitar argued.

One of history’s biggest non-nuclear explosions, the blast on August 4, 2020 destroyed much of Beirut port and surrounding areas, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was caused by a fire in a portside warehouse where a vast stockpile of the industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

The arm-wrestling between Bitar and Oueidat is the latest in Lebanon’s mounting woes, facing dire economic and political crises.

Observers fear the spat over the blast probe could lead to the outright collapse of the judicial system — one of the country’s last fully functioning state institutions.

Burhan says Sudan’s army will be under leadership of civilian government

Sudan’s leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said on Sunday that the country’s army will be brought under the leadership of a new civilian government.

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Speaking before a session for security and army reforms in Khartoum Burhan said his country will build a military force that will not intervene in politics and will be trusted by the Sudanese people in building a modern and democratic state.

More than a year after the military took power in a coup, the military and its former civilian partners and other political forces have agreed on a framework to form a new transitional government and write a new constitution to be announced next month.

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World

India summons Canadian diplomat over Sikh protests outside diplomatic mission

Indian authorities said on Sunday they had summoned Canada’s top diplomat in New Delhi after Sikh protesters gathered outside India’s diplomatic mission in Canada.

According to Canadian media reports, hundreds of people gathered outside the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Saturday over India’s hunt for fugitive Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh.

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The Indian foreign ministry said it summoned Canada’s high commissioner on Saturday “to convey our strong concern about the actions of separatist and extremist elements against our diplomatic Mission and Consulates in Canada this week.”

“It is expected that the Canadian government will take steps to ensure the safety of our diplomats and security of our diplomatic premises so that they are able to fulfil their normal diplomatic functions,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.

A manhunt for Singh, a radical Sikh preacher, has lasted more than a week, with mobile internet cut and gatherings of more than four people banned in parts of the northern state of Punjab. Around 100 people have been arrested.

Singh rose to prominence in recent months demanding the creation of Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland, and with his
hardline interpretation of Sikhism at rallies in rural pockets of Punjab.

Twitter has blocked for Indian users the accounts of several prominent Sikh Canadians who criticized the crackdown, including MP Jagmeet Singh, reportedly following Indian government requests.

The Twitter accounts of several Punjab-based journalists and prominent members of the Sikh community have also been
withheld, according to media reports.

India also summoned the most senior British diplomat last week after some Singh supporters entered and vandalized the Indian High Commission in London.

India also registered a “strong protest” with the US State Department, as well as the US embassy in New Delhi, after men smashed doors and windows at the Indian consulate in San Francisco.

Punjab — which is about 58 percent Sikh and 39 percent Hindu — was rocked by a violent separatist movement for Khalistan in the 1980s and early 1990s in which thousands of people died.

India has often complained to foreign governments about the activities of Sikh hardliners among the Indian diaspora who, it says, are trying to revive the insurgency with a massive financial push.

World

Turkmenistan holds parliamentary elections under new president

Parliamentary polls opened on Sunday in Turkmenistan, a gas-rich country that does not tolerate political dissent or a free press.

The vote is the first under the Central Asian nation’s new presi-dent, who took power following a hereditary succession last year, and comes after the abolition of the legislature’s upper house and the creation of a supreme body.

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Polling stations opened at seven am (0200 GMT) and will close at seven pm (1400 GMT), according to an AFP correspondent in the capital Ashgabat.

Turkmenistan, a former Soviet republic, is one of the world’s most repressive, secretive states and little is known about how the regime makes day-to-day decisions.

For nearly two decades, the country has been ruled by one family, and no election has been judged free or fair by Western poll observers.

Former dentist and health minister Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov came to power in 2006, succeeding the country’s founding president Saparmurat Niyazov after his death.

Berdymukhamedov, who established a strong cult of personality during his tenure, handed the reins over to his son Serdar last year after a token snap election, but kept his position as chair of the upper house of parliament.

In January, the 65-year-old proposed abolishing the upper house — created at his request in 2021 — and setting up “a supreme representative body of people’s power”, the Halk Maslahaty or “People’s Council.”

He was named head of the new body and observers say Berdymukhamedov senior — also called Arkadag or “Protector” — remains the real holder of power.

The new council’s remit covers the main directions of Turkmenistan’s domestic and foreign policy, overshadowing the unicameral national assembly and its 125 members.

Since stepping down, Berdymukhamedov senior has met several foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, and a new city is being built in his honor.

Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most closed-off coun-tries, and according to Reporters Without Borders ranks 177th out of 180 countries for press freedom, ahead of Iran, Eritrea, and North Korea.

Its economy depends hugely on gas exports to China and to a lesser extent Russia and Iran.