STL makes Hariri assassination indictment public, names 4 suspects

Aug 17, 2011, 13:34 GMT

Beirut - Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen published Wednesday the indictments in the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

Four members of the radical Islamic movement Hezbollah were indicted by the STL in June, but the indictment documents which were initially kept a secret were leaked to the press.

Hezbollah at the time strongly denied the charges and refused to cooperate with the court.

Hariri was killed in a massive bomb blast on February 14, 2005 near a seaside area of Beirut killing him along with 21 other people.

According to the STL statement the four suspects named in the indictment are Salim Ayyash, 47, Mustafa Badreddine, 50, Hussein Oneissi, 37, and Assad Sabra, 34.

Ayyash and Badreddine face charges of 'committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device' and homicide, while Oneissi and Sabra face charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Martin Youssef said that what was published Wednesday is a small part of the indictment, while the rest remained classified.

STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare welcomed the recent order of Fransen to unseal the indictment of the Hariri assassination.

'This Order will finally inform the public and the victims about the facts alleged in the indictment regarding the commission of the crime that led to charging the four accused,' Bellmare said.

He stressed that 'the unsealing of the indictment answers many questions about the 14 February 2005 attack.'

The son of the late premier, former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, said in a statement shortly after the indictments were made public: 'I am looking forward to a historic stance from the side of (Hezbollah chief) Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah to hand over the culprits.'

Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver a speech later Wednesday.

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