August 11, 2020 Customs investigation after the blast
left to right
Ministry of Finance
Customs Administration
Issuance No: 474/202
Beirut, August 10, 2020
To: Head of Maritime Section
RE: Documents of the “Rhosus”
Reference: Army Command – Chief of Staff for Equipment – Telegraph Message: 24930/[illegible]/[illegible]/[illegible]
In reference to the above-mentioned subject and reference, please find attached of the entire file of the “Rhosus” in addition to all the correspondence since the ship entered Beirut Port on November 21, 2013 until August 4, 2020.
For information
Beirut, August 10, 2020
Head of Maritime Manifest Detachment
First Sergeant
Wissam Abou Rjeili
[signature]
Attached: the entire file
[illegible]/2014 Prior
[illegible]/2020 Ulterior
To be submitted to the Head of Beirut Brigade
For information. A copy of the entire file is hereto attached from 1 until Page 48
Beirut, August 10, 2020
Acting Head of Beirut Maritime Section
Major Abdel Salam Zarzour
[signature]
1211/2014
29/confidential/ 2020
To be submitted to the Regional Directorate in Beirut
For Information
A copy of the entire file is hereto attached from Page 1 to Page 48
Beirut, August 10, 2020
Acting Head of Beirut Brigade
Lieutenant Colonel Ali al-Haj
page 2 and 3
Ministry of Finance
General Directorate of Customs
Archive No: ي/6-3
Beirut, August 11, 2020
To: HE Minister of Finance
Re: Request for information about the quantity of Ammonium Nitrate stored in Hangar 12
Reference:
- Our referral no 158/Top Secret/2020, Dated August 10, 2020
- The referral of the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut, without number and dated August 10, 2020
In reference to abovementioned subject, and in addition to our referral mentioned in the reference section in which we have submitted to you a report about the measures taken by the General Directorate about the ammonium nitrate shipment which was stored in hangar 12, please find attached a file containing copies of the documents we received from the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut dated today, composed of 49 pages (48 pages sent by the Manifest Department’s Maritime Detachment in addition to the referral of this detachment we received through the reporting lines) and which we found after review, that on February 21, 2014 and before the unloading had taken place, the Anti-Narcotics and Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing section received information about the ship docked at Quay 11, that the ship was carrying Ammonium Nitrate. The aforementioned section suggested back then to the Head of the Audit and Anti-Smuggling Service to instruct the Beirut Brigades and the Head of the Manifest Department to cooperate with the security authorities to transfer the ship from Quay 11 to the Breakwater, and if possible, to put it under the surveillance of the [security] agencies at the Port. The head of Audit and Anti-Smuggling Service transmitted immediately the information to the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut with the same purpose, and the Directorate transmitted it to the Head of the Port of Beirut Customs Service and to the Head of the Beirut Brigades.
The Manifest Department Detachment stated that the ship is docked already at Quay 11, whereas the first controller of the Manifest Department referred the file to the Head of the Beirut Brigades to ask whether the manifest of the merchandise remaining onboard the ship was submitted to the Beirut Brigades under its real designation, type and nature pursuant to articles 68 and 75 of the Customs Regulations. However, the Head of the Brigades, according to the referral of the Manifest Department, refused to receive the “call” and the file was transmitted to the head of the Port of Beirut Customs Service which in turn transmitted it to the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut inviting the head of the Beirut Brigades to provide the information that was requested by the head of the Manifest Department.
The file was transmitted to the head of the Beirut Brigades [picture of original file cropped] Maritime Manifest Detachment that The National Trading and Shipping Agency submitted on November 16, 2013 [picture cropped] carrying onboard cargo of Ammonium Nitrate in transit and upon the ship’s arrival on November 21, 2013 to Beirut Port, it was inspected after the [captain] submitted a unified list to the mentioned detachment, and later on the transit manifest was obtained from the captain as well. The head of the detachment mentioned the memo no 26036/2004 dated December 2004 of the General Directorate, which states that the manifest of the remaining cargo onboard of the ship should not be required unless there is information about the presence onboard of prohibited or monopolized cargo not declared on the Unified List.
On April 1, 2014, the head of the Central Section submitted the file to the head of the Beirut Brigades noting that the type of merchandise cited is not considered prohibited or monopolized, however it may be used in certain proportions to produce prohibited substances and is considered a hazardous substance that must be restricted should it be used locally. The head of the Beirut Brigades submitted the explanations to the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut on April 1, 2014 which referred it to the Port of Beirut Customs Service for information and action, which in turn referred it to the Manifest Department with the same purpose on April 9, 2014.
On April 22, 2014, the Manifest Department returned the file to the head of the
[Port of] Beirut Customs Service, suggesting as per the explanations of the Maritime Manifest Detachment, to excuse the violation of not identifying the type of cargo by its real designation since it was correctly and explicitly identified on the transit manifest.
The head of the Port of Beirut Customs Service approved the suggestion in the letter no 2117/2014 dated April 30, 2014, sent to the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut which returned the file to the Manifest Department in its letter no 3224/2014 dated May 6, 2014, with the approval of the suggestion of the First Controller of the Manifest Department.
This is for your information and to request to add this letter to our report that we submitted to you in our letter with the same number dated August 10, 2020 and to consider it as an integral part of the mentioned report.
Beirut August 11, 2020
Acting General Director of Customs
Raymond al-Khoury
[Signature]
Re: Summary of the letter received by the Ministry of Finance dated August 11, 2020 including the entire file of the “Rhosus” ship
- On November 16, 2013, the National Trading & Shipping Agency sent a letter containing a notice and recognition to the Head of the Customs Detachment to inform him about the arrival of the “Rhosus” ship to Beirut Port on November 19-20, 2013, carrying 2755,5 tonnes (High Density Ammonium Nitrate IMO 5.0) in transit. The cargo was shipped from Georgia to a port of Mozambique for “Banco Internacional de Mocambique”.
- On December 21, 2013, the Directorate General of Land and Maritime Transport – head of Beirut Port [Beirut Harbor Master], issued a letter to General Directorate of Lebanese Customs to inform the Directorate about the decision taken by the Enforcement Department in Beirut to provisionally impound the “Rhosus” docked in Beirut Port and affiliated to the National Trading and Shipping Agency, pursuant to an impoundment request submitted by “Bunkernet LTD” on December 20, 2013.
- During February 2014, the General Directorate of Customs issued a letter addressed to the National Trading and Shipping Agency to ask the Agency to appear before the Manifest Department to look into a violation which is that the Unified List of the “Rhosus” which arrived in Beirut on November 21, 2013 and carrying 2750 bags of High Density Ammonium Nitrate, did not include the type of cargo.
- On February 28, 2014, the National Trading and Shipping Agency submitted its response to the Manifest Department in which it stated that Unified [List] of the ship does not identify the type of merchandise however it mentions its count, weight and destination country, noting that the content and type of the merchandise were mentioned in the notice and recognition and on NAJEM system under the “Transit” section, and that a copy of the transit manifest was submitted upon the ship’s arrival to the Maritime Detachment in which the content of the cargo was cited, thus the Agency asked to be exempted from the violation.
- On March 2, 2014, the first controller of the Manifest Department sent a letter to the head of the Beirut Brigades asking whether the manifest of the cargo remaining on board of the ship was submitted to the Brigades back then and whether the concerned cargo, its real designation, type and nature were cited pursuant to articles 68 and 75 of the Customs Law.
- On March 4, 2014, the first controller of the Manifest Department sent a letter to the Port of Beirut Customs Service to inform the Service that the Brigades refused to receive the “call”, and accordingly the head of Service referred the letter to the Customs Regional Directorate of Beirut to ask the head of the Brigades to provide the information requested in the letter of the First Controller of the Manifest Department.
- After transferring the file to the head of the Beirut Brigades, the response of the head of Maritime Manifest Detachment was received on March 31, 2014, which stated that the National Trading and Shipping Agency submitted on November 16, 2014 a notice and recognition of the arrival of the “Rhosus” in which it stated that there are onboard of the ship Ommonium [sic] Nitrate in transit, and upon the arrival of the ship to Beirut Port, the ship was inspected after the captain submitted a Unified List, and later after several days, a copy of the transit manifest was obtained from the captain.
- A mention was made as well to the memorandum no 26038/2004 of the Customs Directorate which stipulated that the manifest of the cargo remaining aboard the ship should not be requested unless there is information about the presence of prohibited or monopolized cargo on board of the ship and that was not declared in the Unified [List].
- On April 1, 2014, the head of the Central Section referred the file to the head of the Beirut Brigade based on the abovementioned explanations, noting that the type of the cargo is not considered prohibited or monopolized. However according to their information, it could be used in certain proportions to produce prohibited substance and is considered a hazardous, restricted substance if used locally.
- On April 22, 204 [sic], the Manifest Department returned the file to the head of the [Port of] Beirut Customs Service suggesting dismissing the violation of not identifying the type of cargo under its real designation, since it is identified correctly on the transit manifest, and the Beirut Customs Service approved this suggestion.
- On February 21, 2014, Colonel Joseph Nicolas Skaf, Head of the Anti-Narcotics and Anti-Money Laundering section submitted a report the head of Audit and Anti-Smuggling Service in which he stated the presence of the “Rhosus” ship docked at Quay 11 in Beirut Port and carrying Ammonium Nitrate which is used for detonation purposes and threatens the public safety. The section suggested to instruct the head of Beirut Brigades and the head of the Manifest Department to work with the security authorities to move the ship from Quay 11 to the Breakwater and if possible, to put the ship under the surveillance of these security agencies present at the port.
- Following a case filed by Mr Prokoshev Borys, Lupol Valeriy, Goloveshkin Andriy and Musinchak Borys, against Mr. Mustafa Baghdadi, in his capacity as owner of the commercial entity known as the National Trading and Shipping Agency, pursuant to which they requested to oblige the defendant to repatriate them, a ruling was issued by Jad Maalouf, judge of urgent matters, to repatriate the abovementioned persons immediately, and authorize them to take to this end, directly or through their legal representative, the necessary measures and formalities pursuant to the ruling.
- On September 1, 2014, the Ministry of Justice sent to the General Directorate of Customs a decision to enforce the above-mentioned ruling.
- On February 20, 2018, the Ministry of Finance- Directorate of Customs, sent a letter to the Head of the Maritime Section in which they stated that the cargo of the “Rhosus” was unloaded in hangar 12 while the broken ship was berthed in front of Basin 2, and it reached the rocks in the last place at which it was berthed in 2016 and sank on February 18, 2014 in the aftermath of a storm, noting that the ship was still impounded amid a total indifference from its agent since it was impounded. The ship sank because the cargo holds were not closed tightly because of their dire situation, and the ‘Gestion et de Exploitation du Port de Beyrouth’ (GEPB) was trying to obtain an order from the Case Authority at the Ministry of Justice to recover the ship from water after cutting it into several parts to be sold by them to pay the outstanding debts on the ship.
- On March 2, 2018, a communication document from the Common Naval Operations Room was received by the Ministry of Environment and the Directorate General of Land and Maritime Transport stating that on February 27, 2018 the Naval Forces inspected the surroundings of the mentioned ship and they found a small amount of Diesel on a surface of 8 meters, trapped between the buoys and did not leak outside, and a sample of the pollution was collected and handed to the Common Naval Operations Room.
- On March 16, 2018, a communication document from the Common Naval Operations Room was received by the head of Judicial Brigade for information that Mr. Edgar Daw from “Eddy Home Engineering and Contracting” appeared before the Common Naval Operations Room stating that he had an approval to do dive planning and a marine survey of the ship “Rhosus” starting March 19, 2018 for a period of 10 days.
page 4 (correcting mistake in the report)
Ministry of Finance
General Directorate of Customs
Archive no: ي/6-ت
Issuance Number: 158/confidential/2020
Beirut: August 17, 2020
To: HE Minister of Finance
Re: Correction of a typographical error in our letter no 158/confidential/2020
Reference: Our letter no 158/Confidential/2020, Dated August 11, 2020
Pursuant to the above-mentioned subject and reference,
We would like to inform you that a typographical error had occurred in the second paragraph of the second page of our letter mentioned in the reference section above, a copy of which is hereto attached. There were in the letter the following expression “on April 1, 2014, the head of the Central Section submitted…”. However, the expression should be “On April 1, 2014, the head of the Maritime Section”. There is no amendment to the rest.
We hereby attach a copy of the letter of the Head of the Maritime Section together with a copy of the letter of head of the Brigade to the Regional Directorate in Beirut, a copy of the letter of the first controller of the Manifest Department dated April 22, 2014 and the letter of the Head of Service no 2117/2014 dated April 30, 2014, in addition to the letter of the Regional Directorate in Beirut no 3224/2014 dated May 6, 2014, all of which are mentioned in the two paragraphs before the last one mentioned in the reference, to annex these documents to the documents sent in our letter under the same number, dated August 11, 2020.
Acting General Director of Customs
Raymond al-Khoury
[Signature]