Interpol issues red notices over Beirut port blast

Interpol issues red notices over Beirut port blast

BEIRUT – Interpol has issued red notices for the captain and owner of the ship that carried the chemicals which devastated Beirut in an explosion in August, killing 200 people, Lebanon's state media said.

Five months since one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts on record, serious questions remain about the ammonium nitrate that detonated after being stored at the port for years.

The Interpol notices, which are not international arrest warrants, ask authorities worldwide to provisionally detain people pending possible extradition or other legal actions.

Interpol issues them at the request of a member country.

State news agency NNA said on Tuesday that Interpol also issued a notice for a Portuguese trader who examined the cargo at Beirut port in 2014, without giving a name or further details.

Lebanon's state prosecutor, Ghassan Khoury, had asked Interpol to issue the notices, NNA said.

The Interpol global police coordination agency says it does not confirm or deny red notices that are not publicly available on its website.

An Interpol spokesperson said if there was a notice and it was not published online, that meant it was for law enforcement only.

Boris Prokoshev, a sea captain poses for a photo after his interview with the Associated Press outside Sochi, Russia, Thursday,