Visit to port of Beirut in 2014 was part of professional activity – Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique

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Visit to port of Beirut in 2014 was part of professional activity – Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique

4:22 CAT | 13 Jan 2021

File photo: Al Arabya

Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique (FEM) says that a Portuguese employee for whom Interpol recently issued a ‘red notice’ visited the port of Beirut in 2014 in the course of his usual professional activities.

The information is part of the latest developments in the investigation of the ammonium nitrate explosion that caused more than 200 deaths in the Lebanese capital in 2020.

After Tuesday’s news “reporting the issuance of an international arrest notice for a FEM employee”, Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique said that the visit to the port “was usual in terms of tracking ordered cargo, and mandatory in the rules of good management whenever the supplier fails to deliver”.

“Our worker went to do what was his job to do,” FEM says, adding that the company and its employee are fully available to provide all necessary clarification.

Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique is owned by Moura, Silva & Filhos, headquartered in Póvoa de Lanhoso, Braga, in Portugal.

Interpol has issued a ‘red notice’ against a Portuguese man who, in 2014, visited the warehouse in the port of Beirut where the shipment of ammonium nitrate which exploded in August 2019 was stored, causing more than 200 deaths, Spanish news agency EFE reported on Tuesday.

Also read: Beirut blast: Interpol issues ‘red notices’ for two Russians, one Portuguese man

The news agency cites its Lebanese counterpart ANN, according to which Ghassan al Joury, a Lebanese public prosecutor investigating the explosion in the Lebanese capital, received a copy of the Interpol notice for the “nitrate dealer” on January 5th.

At issue is the Moldovan freighter ‘Rhosus’, which arrived on the Lebanese coast in 2013 with a large amount of ammonium nitrate on board, produced in Georgia, and which unloaded the cargo in Beirut, despite its final destination being Mozambique.

Also read: Beirut: Ammonium nitrate purchased for Fábrica de Explosivos de Moçambique – The New York Times

In early December, the Lebanese judge in charge of the case indicted the incumbent Lebanese prime minister, Hasan Diab, and three former ministers, for alleged negligence in the case related to the August 4, 2020, explosion, which injured 6,500 Beirut residents.

The explosion of about 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate caused a shock wave that devastated several neighbourhoods in the Lebanese capital, leaving some 300,000 people temporarily homeless.

Red notices are non-binding requests circulated to law enforcement agencies worldwide to find and provisionally arrest people, often pending extradition. They are not the same as international arrest warrants.

Source: Lusa