Beirut, 26 Jnuary 2023 (dpa/MIA) – Dozens of families of the Beirut port blast victims and some lawmakers protested on Thursday in a show of support for investigator Tarek Bitar.

In a dramatic week in the case, the state prosecutor, Ghassan Oweidat, on Wednesday ordered the release of all suspects detained in connection with the deadly blast in 2020.

Two days earlier, Bitar had announced that he was resuming the investigation into the case, following a 13-month halt due to political infighting.

Amid very tight security measures at the Justice Palace on Thursday, angry family members called for justice for their loved ones.

“We will work to obtain justice at any cost,” Mireille Khoury, mother of Elias Khoury, a 15-year-old boy who died in the blast, told dpa.

Scuffles erupted between the protesters and security forces in front the Justice Palace and resulted in injuries to three protesters.

Lawmaker Waddah Sadek said that he was hit by the bodyguards of Justice Minister Henry Khoury.

In August 2020, the explosion of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate inside the port killed more than 200 people, injured 6,000 and destroyed large parts of the city as well as displacing some 300,000 people.

“What is happening inside the Lebanese judiciary … is a judicial coup against justice,” lawmaker Firas Hamdan said.

Families of the victims have been calling for an international investigation into the blast because they do not trust the Lebanese judiciary, claiming politics plays a major role in its decisions.

Meanwhile, protesters late on Thursday blocked roads at the outskirts of the capital to protest the ongoing decline of the Lebanese lira against the US dollar.

The pound was trading at 61,000 to $1 for the first time since the economic crisis started in Lebanon in 2019.

The Lebanese pound used to trade at 1,500 against the dollar before 2019.

Hani Bohsali, the president of the Syndicate of Food Importers expressed fears that food security in Lebanon might be at risk due to the currency fluctuations.

“We fear that people will not be able to afford to buy food products as food prices are constantly rising,” he told dpa.

The Syndicate of Drug Importers also announced in a statement that the sharp and unprecedented rise in the foreign currency exchange rate threatens all vital Lebanese sectors, especially the health sector.

“This situation will lead to a shortage of medicine, which poses a great threat to the continuity of pharmaceutical and hospital institutions,” the statement said.

The World Bank has described Lebanon’s crisis as among the most severe since the mid-1800s.

Poverty in Lebanon has drastically increased during the past year and now affects more than 74% of the population, according to a UN report.

The Lebanese pound has lost 95% of its value since the onset of the crisis.