BEIRUT - Lebanon's investigating judge has charged caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence over the Beirut port blast that killed 200 people and ruined a swathe of the capital in August.
The others are former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, as well as former public works ministers Ghazi Zeaiter and Youssef Finianos, state news agency NNA said on Thursday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Thursday his conscience was clear over the Aug. 4 Beirut port blast after the judge investigating the explosion charged him with negligence.
Diab said in a statement he was confident that his hands were clean and that he had dealt transparently with the file of the Beirut port explosion, adding that he was surprised to be targeted by the investigating judge.
Zeaiter told Reuters he would make a statement once he was officially informed of the charges. He headed the public works and transport ministry in 2014, shortly after the arrival of the Rhosus ship carrying a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate which detonated at the port.
Officials have said the cargo of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical, was stored unsafely for years at the port, which lies in heart of the city.
Diab's office, Finianos and Khalil, who is a senior aide to Lebanon's influential Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Four months after one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record, which injured thousands of people, victims are still waiting for the results of an investigation their leaders had promised would come within days of the Aug. 4 port blast.
The judge leading the official inquiry, Fadi Sawan, sent a letter last month asking parliament to probe 10 former ministers.