Four Hezbullah members indicted in Hariri murder
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has issued indictments against four senior Hezbullah members in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. “I will now examine the indictment and the warrants to take the appropriate measures,” [State Prosecutor Saeed] Mirza told reporters following a meeting with a three-member delegation from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).I cannot envision a Hezbullah-led government allowing these prosecutions to go through, but at least the world will know who did the dastardly deed and (maybe) Hezbullah will be forever excluded from participating in the international community.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the indictment identified the suspects as Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Aineysseh and Asad Sabra.
The STL delegation handed over to Mirza the sealed indictment and arrest warrants for the four suspects during a meeting held at Mirza's office at the Justice Palace in Beirut before midday Thursday.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Hariri assassination and has described accusations as an “Israeli-American project.”
Speaking to a local radio station during a break from talks at Baabda Palace, Minister of State of Administrative Affairs and Hezbollah member Mohammad Fneish said: “When we see the [STL] indictment, we will comment on it.”
Badreddine is a cousin and a brother-in-law of Hezbollah’s slain commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Syria in 2008. Badreddine eventually replaced Mughniyeh as Hezbollah’s chief operations officer.
According to the indictment, Badreddine masterminded and supervised the plot to assassinate the Lebanese statesman while, Ayyash, 48, is alleged to have headed the cell that carried out the assassination of Hariri.
Lebanon, according to experts, now has 30 days to serve out the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the STL will then make public the indictment and summon the suspects to appear before the court.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Hezbullah, Rafik al-Hariri, Special Tribunal for Lebanon
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:35 PM
2 Comments:
The Hezbollah-dominated Lebanese government is not going to arrest the suspects in question and hand them over for trial - but once the indictments are unsealed, every one in Lebanon and the Arab World will know of Hezbollah's guilt - reinforced by their refusal to allow their own members who committed the crime to be brought to justice. They killed an Arab official, not the Israelis. That's the difference.
What about Syria?
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