UN's Hariri tribunal releases names, profiles of Hezbollah suspects

[News_Editor]

UN's Hariri tribunal releases names, profiles of Hezbollah suspects

2011-07-30 00:05:58 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIRUT (BNO NEWS) -- The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri released on Friday the names, charges and biographical information of the four Lebanese individuals indicted by the court late June.

The United Nations-backed tribunal identified the suspects as Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra. A statement posted on the court's website said: "The Prosecution alleges that the four individuals named in the indictment were involved in the 14 February 2005 attack that killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others."

The names of the four Hezbollah members were first leaked to the media last month when the STL handed over to Lebanon's State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza the sealed indictments and arrest warrants against the four men. On July 3, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah confirmed that the four names leaked to the press were members of his group but said they would never be apprehended, "not even in 300 years," as reported by the Daily Star.

Hezbollah refused to comment on the news of the release of the names by the STL.

The STL also released a "statement of reasons" to justify the decision to lift the confidentiality on the suspects' details, saying that making the requested information available to the public might increase the likelihood of apprehending the suspects.

Hezbollah has claimed that the U.N.-backed tribunal's probe is marred by witnesses who gave false information and has urged the Lebanese government to deal with these 'false witnesses' in the tribunal. According to the Daily Star, the Shiite movement has also repeatedly slammed the tribunal as a "U.S.-Israeli" project aimed at targeting the resistance group, and has vowed not to cooperate with the court.

The STL, which was established in 2007, has been a point of contention among the country's rival political parties and led to the collapse of the government of Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, who leads the March 14 alliance, early this year.

Hariri was killed with 22 others on February 14, 2005, when a massive blast struck his motorcade in a seafront district of Beirut. The assassination sparked the so-called Cedar Revolution, a wave of mass protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year deployment.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-07-30

[geriatrickid]

These 4 will never be brought to trial as long as Hezbollah calls the shots in Lebanon.