Hezbollah: STL indictments are "politicized"

Aug 17, 2011, 18:54 GMT

Beirut - The radical Islamic movement Hezbollah on Wednesday said indictments issued by an international court investigating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri were 'politicized'.

Four Hezbollah members were indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in June, but their names were only officially published earlier Wednesday.

'There is no critical evidence,' said Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, speaking at a Ramadan dinner. 'It is clear that the STL is politicized, and the accused members from the movement should not be seen as criminals but as honest people.'

The indictments were focused on defaming his movement and party members, he added.

'Someome is trying to sabotage the relation between the Lebanese communities and what is mentioned in the indictment is not evidence,' Nasrallah continued.

Hezbollah has already denied the charges laid by the STL and refuses to cooperate with the court.

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

According to the STL statement, published by pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen, 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.

The indictments need to be studied in depth, which 'Hezbollah will be doing in the next few days,' Nasrallah said.

STL spokesman Martin Youssef said that what was published Wednesday was a small part of the indictment, while the rest remained classified.

STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare welcomed the decision to publish the names of those indicted.

'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,' Bellemare said.

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

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

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