Dahr el-Baïdar Explosives: Charges Brought Against 13 Hezbollah Members

The Dahr el-Baidar explosives case saw a major judicial development on Friday that could reignite controversy over Hezbollah’s weapons and paramilitary activities.

The government commissioner at the military court, Judge Claude Ghanem, has brought charges against thirteen members of the pro-Iranian group, implicated at various levels in transporting a large shipment of explosives, including TNT and C4. Security forces intercepted the shipment at Dahr el-Baidar, on the road linking the Bekaa Valley to Beirut, before another similar shipment coming from Syria was discovered in the Hermel area.

Eight people are named in the indictment, six of whom remain at large. They are Haitham Amhaz and Ali el-Kurdi, who were arrested in the van carrying the explosives; Ibrahim Habib, known as “Sajed”; Bilal Sabouri, alias “Zoulfikar”; Mohammad Ayoub; Mohammad Zeaiter, who was in the vehicle escorting the two couriers’ van; Mohammad Hazimeh, the vehicle’s owner; and Iryna Krichinova, Amhaz’s wife. Five others, identified only by their aliases, also face charges.

The thirteen are accused of undermining state security, forming criminal associations aimed at undermining the state’s authority and standing, possessing weapons and explosives, and violating existing laws and government decisions. All are crimes punishable under the Penal Code, whose relevant articles Judge Ghanem listed in his indictment. The judge has sought prison terms of up to ten years for the thirteen defendants.

Most importantly, the articles in question, particularly Article 335, pave the way for referring the case to the Court of Justice, which has jurisdiction over serious crimes against state security and whose rulings cannot be appealed. The Amal-Hezbollah alliance, however, remains fiercely opposed to that prospect.

It now remains to be seen what happens next in this case, which is set to proceed through the courts but remains deeply political, as Hezbollah’s “outraged” reaction demonstrates.

One of the group’s MPs, Hussein Hajj Hassan, had the audacity to invoke “human rights” (!) to denounce Judge Ghanem’s decision. According to him, the indictment “does not even respect the most basic principles of the National Pact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (!), the United Nations Charter, or the many Lebanese laws that guarantee the legitimate rights of any resistance movement confronting occupation.” As far as nonsense goes, he could hardly have outdone himself. Yet his remarks, particularly the reference to the National Pact, carry a danger: that this case will be exploited to the fullest in an attempt to mobilize Hezbollah’s base against the government.

The explosives couriers and those who commissioned them “were performing a national duty by defending their country and protecting the Lebanese people,” claimed the MP, who went so far as to accuse the judge of having “bowed to political directives in drafting his indictment.”

Beyond its legal dimension, this case will therefore pose another test for the government, whose next meeting is expected to take place on November 5. Justice Minister Adel Nassar and his Lebanese Forces colleagues intend once again to demand that the case be referred to the Court of Justice, based on the findings of the military court’s investigation.

Their insistence on this point had sparked a heated debate within the government at its October 22 meeting. Mr. Nassar, in particular, backed by the Lebanese Forces ministers, had strongly advocated referring the case immediately to that court, arguing that all the evidence needed to establish a serious threat to state security was already in place. In his presentation, he had detailed that evidence, explaining that the explosives could be used in two ways: for military operations or for operations inside the country, alluding to possible attacks. The justice minister had stressed that either use would be criminal and would justify referring the case directly to the Court of Justice.

But President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, at the urging of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, had preferred to postpone the decision pending the findings of the preliminary investigation. The aim was to avoid a major crisis within the government, which will nevertheless have no choice but to discuss the issue again on Thursday.

Indeed, given the seriousness of the case, the justice minister had managed to secure its effective inclusion as a standing item on the cabinet’s agenda, ministerial sources told Levant Time. In other words, it can be raised at any cabinet meeting, an arrangement Nawaf Salam accepted. The government bears direct responsibility: if a destabilizing attack were carried out in the country after the executive had failed to take the necessary decisions to address the explosives case, it would be the government that would have to answer for it, the same ministerial sources told Levant Time.

A pivotal moment

The November 5 meeting will thus mark a pivotal moment in a broader process aimed at restoring state authority and implementing the decisions taken to that end. Chief among these remains the ban on Hezbollah’s security activities, adopted in March 2026, which has prompted judicial measures that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Referring the case to the Court of Justice would be part of the same effort, since the explosives case would open up the entire question of Hezbollah and the harm its weapons inflict on the country. This would be a first in thirty years, observers note.

On Friday, Nawaf Salam reaffirmed the state’s determination to assert its sovereignty over the entire country. Speaking at the launch of consultations on the national plan for managing Palestinian refugee camps, he recalled that the camps fall under Lebanese sovereignty and must be subject to national law.

He also cited the provisions of the Taif Agreement concerning the extension of state authority and the dismantling of Lebanese and foreign militias—a position that directly touches on the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons.

According to the same ministerial sources, the irreversible process of restoring state authority is moving in the right direction, even if it is proceeding through a policy of small, incremental steps.