BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has filed a lawsuit against merchants responsible for importing radioactive products into Lebanon, a judicial source told The Daily Star Thursday.
Berri filed the case with the State Prosecution Office Wednesday morning, on behalf of himself as both a citizen of Lebanon and the speaker of Parliament, the source added.
The case targets those who participated “in the crime of importing radioactive products to Lebanon, which has negative effects on public health and the environment.”
Berri requested that the locations of radioactive products be determined, the suspects detained and the material sent back to the source.
State Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud tasked criminal investigators with carrying out the probe.
The speaker had expressed his concern over the matter in his regular meeting with MPs who visited him Wednesday at his Ain al-Tineh residence in Beirut.
The move came after the local newspaper As-Safir reported Tuesday that Defense Minister Samir Moqbel had made a decision to transform a military base in Adloun into a landfill for radioactive waste.
After Berri voiced his rejection to the plan, Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi assured him that it would not go through.
The Secretary General of the National Council for Scientific Research Mouin Hamzeh also told As-Safir that the plan violated environmental laws, because the landfill would be close to touristic and residential areas.
However, Berri told MPs Wednesday that a plan to store the dangerous waste in Adloun was still being weighed by officials.
Storing radioactive material violates international conventions that Lebanon has signed, Berri noted.
As-Safir’s report also stated that “gangs and mafias” had been smuggling radioactive products from Syria and Iraq through illegal crossings on the Lebanese borders.
But once the products arrive to Lebanon and are found to be radioactive, Lebanon is banned from selling or deporting them, according to international conventions.
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