General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said that he “will appear before the court like any citizen, when the law allows it.”
“I didn’t get permission to appear before the court,” Ibrahim said in a televised interview.
“We are all under the law and the judiciary but there is a law that determines the relation between the judge and the witness or defendant,” he added.
Meanwhile State Security head Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, who has also been accused in the Beirut port blast, said that the State Security has “fully performed its duty” concerning the ammonium nitrate shipment that exploded at the port.
“The General Directorate of State Security and specifically Major Joseph al-Naddaf have performed their duty and have considered the ammonium nitrate to be dangerous from the very first moment,” Saliba said.
“We have taken action accordingly,” he claimed, adding that he has appeared three times before the judiciary “as a witness and as a defendant.”
“My words were clear and convinced the judges,” Saliba affirmed.
He went on to urge the families of the victims to “demand truth and justice,” stressing that “justice won’t be reached through a scapegoat.”