'We will remove you', Hezbollah official told Beirut blast judge

Razor wire is pictured in front of the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, Lebanon September 29, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A senior official in the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah told the judge investigating the disastrous Beirut port blast that it would remove him from the probe, according to a journalist who says she conveyed the message and a judicial source.

Judge Tarek Bitar described the message in a letter to the public prosecutor, said the judicial source. The justice minister and judiciary were following up on the matter but a formal investigation has yet to be opened, the source said.