The judge leading Beirut blast probe: Discreet and defiant

For eight months, a relatively obscure Lebanese judge has been quietly investigating one of the world’s worst non-nuclear explosions with only four assistants — and a lot of powerful detractors trying to block him

BEIRUT -- For eight months, he has quietly investigated one of the world’s worst non-nuclear explosions with only four assistants — and a lot of powerful detractors trying to block him.

In that time, Judge Tarek Bitar has become a household name in Lebanon and a staple on every news bulletin.

For many Lebanese, Bitar's investigation of last year’s massive Beirut port explosion is their only hope for truth and accountability in a country that craves both. Billboards in Beirut showing a fist holding a gavel read: “Only Tarek can take our revenge,” a play on Arabic words using the judge’s last name.

But to the country’s entrenched political class, the enigmatic 47-year-old has turned into a nightmare. Politicians have united as they rarely do to remove him from his post, apparently deeming him a threat much greater than the country’s collapsing economy, the state’s empty coffers and burgeoning unemployment, poverty and public anger.