Justice for My Killed Son, Justice for Lebanon | Opinion

Recently, in Harris County, Texas, I along with several U.S. citizens and relatives of U.S. citizens, took a huge step in the fight for justice for an entire city over 7,000 miles away.

We filed a case against the holding company TGS ASA , responsible for bringing the 2,750 metric tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate aboard the Rhosus, to the Port of Beirut in 2013.

It was the stockpile that would detonate some nearly seven years later, a colossal explosion that would take the lives of over 220 people, including my 2-year-old son.

It's been almost two years since I was sitting with Isaac as he was eating dinner in his high chair. The blast, 700 meters away from our home in the Port of Beirut, turned our living room windows into thousands of pieces of flying glass.

A single shard of that glass struck Isaac in his heart.

Isaac died several hours later in the hospital of cardiac arrest and massive internal bleeding. He was the youngest victim of the explosion.

As you can imagine, when Isaac's life was taken from us, our lives were forever changed.

Our tragedy is just one of thousands; stories of families destroyed, and homes hollowed out in an instant. As well as leaving at least 220 dead, the blast injured over 7,000 and left 300,000 displaced.

The scale and devastation of the explosion would be impossible to comprehend if not for it being captured and documented on smartphone cameras from all angles. Clips that shook the world, shared as we reeled in our homes and sought help for our dying son.

It is unfathomable to imagine that that explosion, a catastrophe so violent and colossal, could ever possibly be forgotten. That the causes would remain a mystery, those responsible left unpunished and the justice and truth for victims and survivors left to abandon.

However, after two years of fighting for justice, that is exactly the outcome we are being faced with today.

Despite the Lebanese government's initial promises for a domestic investigation to be completed within days, what we have seen since is an investigation marred by political interference. The investigative judge has faced constant intimidation, the worst of which we saw play out in violent skirmishes on the streets of Beirut last October against the families of the victims, as well as legal challenges filed by the politicians summoned for questioning, that have led to unconscionable delays.

For two years, we have hoped for the Lebanese domestic investigation to proceed. It was vital that this process was given a chance. However, it is abundantly clear now that some Lebanese authorities will go to any means to ensure the investigation is never completed.

The evidence of high-level corruption and negligence of Lebanese officials is now well documented. In a 700-page report, Human Rights Watch found evidence to suggest that a number of senior military, security, and government officials foresaw the significant threat to life posed by the presence of the ammonium nitrate at the port, and tacitly accepted the risk of death occurring. This amounts to a violation of the right to life under international law.

In a political system so inherently corrupt and with so many powerful individuals directly implicated in the carnage, we have no choice but to carve out an alternative path to justice.

Uncovering Lebanon's Web of Corruption

And that's why, I along with eight other plaintiffs and with the support of Swiss foundation, Accountability Now, are beginning legal proceedings against U.S.-based firm TGS ASA, the legal proprietor of Spectrum—the company that chartered the garbage vessel Rhosus that brought the 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate into Beirut Port in November 2013.

We are hoping that through this case, some key questions will be answered.

Why did Spectrum charter the Rhosus, an unseaworthy shipping vessel with a checkered history in maintenance and compliance, and an opaque ownership to Beirut's port when it was three times overloaded, and carrying military grade ammonium nitrate? Why did it do so in the context of a suspicious contract which it entered into with the Lebanese Ministry of Energy, the proceeds of which are suspiciously deposited into an account under the sole signatures of individual ministers?

We hope to find out the series of events that led to the chartering of the Rhosus and its cargo, neither of which ever left Beirut. The ship itself still sits at the bottom of the Beirut harbor, having sunk in 2018.

We also hope this case will also uncover the complicated web of corruption which many members of the Lebanese political elite profited from, with the assistance of private companies. We know these are the questions the Lebanese authorities do not want us to answer.

The implications and precedence are huge—the discoveries of this case could be used in future cases, as well as the domestic investigation. However, we know the Lebanese investigation will likely never be allowed to proceed.

That is why I have been working with Legal Action Worldwide and Human Rights Watch to call on the international community, to set up a U.N. independent and impartial fact-finding mission to establish the facts and circumstances that resulted in the explosion and to ultimately find who was responsible. I repeat that call now.

For Lebanon to have any chance of moving forward, not only beyond the collective trauma of the explosion but also toward becoming a country free from corruption and its many ongoing crises, truth and justice must be at the core of this recovery.

As Isaac was discovering and growing into the world around him, neglectful decisions were being made purely motivated by greed and self-interest.

Corruption isn't just about missing money. It was corruption that killed my son.

It's time now for answers.

We will never be able to move on without knowing the truth about what happened to our son and the many that perished that day, two years ago.

We need truth, we demand justice.

Sarah Copland is a United Nations employee.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.