Safa is head of the Iran-backed militant group’s Liaison and Coordination Unit. In 2019, he was placed on a US Treasury sanctions list, accused of having “exploited Lebanon’s ports and border crossings to smuggle contraband and facilitate travel” on behalf of Hezbollah.
“We’ve had it up to our noses with you. We will stay with you until the end of this legal path, but if it doesn’t work out, we will usurp you,” the message to Bitar said, according to the source.
Neither Safa nor other members of Hezbollah have been named by state media as official subjects of the investigation into the port blast.
The conversation was first reported by Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Edmond Sassine in a tweet on Tuesday.
It is unclear what was meant by the threat to “usurp” Bitar, but the warning has raised concerns that the judge could be at risk of being physically harmed.
Hezbollah, which has a political arm consisting of elected members of parliament, has previously been accused of employing intimidation tactics against officials.
The group has not responded to CNN’s request for comment, and it has not issued a public response.
Since his appointment in February of this year, the judge, who also heads Beirut’s criminal court, has sought top political and security officials for questioning in the Beirut blast probe. He is the second judicial investigator to head the investigation. The first judge tasked with handling the probe was dismissed after two ex-ministers charged in the investigation successfully filed a motion for his removal.
Bitar’s investigation of high-profile politicians — including former ministers, the head of the country’s main intelligence apparatus and former Prime Minister Hassan Diab — has posed the biggest legal challenge to Lebanon’s ruling elite in decades. Diab has repeatedly denied the accusations against him.
Many in the ruling elite, including politicians, have immunity in the investigation by virtue of Lebanon’s constitution, but there have been growing calls for that immunity to be lifted for the purposes of this investigation. There are ongoing legal battles, in return, to maintain that immunity and avoid prosecution. Meanwhile, Bitar has emerged as one of the country’s most popular civil servants, hailed for championing rule of law in a confessional power sharing system that has repeatedly shielded powerful politicians and businessmen from accountability.
Dozens of members of parliament, including all from Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, have petitioned to take the case out of Bitar’s hands and move it…
Read More: Hezbollah threatened top judge probing Beirut port blast, source says