August 14, 2010 - L'Orient le jour - Hizbullah to hand data on Hariri killing to Lebanon's judiciary

‘What they do with that evidence is their responsibility’
By The Daily Star

BEIRUT: A Hizbullah official said Friday that the party would hand over data allegedly implicating Israel in the murder of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri to the Lebanese judiciary upon its request, which judicial sources say has been passed on verbally to the resistance.

The judiciary’s move follows a request by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, but Hizbullah reiterated its position on the STL’s probe committee, stressing that the party still doubted the court’s credibility.

“What Lebanon’s [judiciary] asks for we will provide, and what they do with that is their responsibility,” Administrative Affairs Minister Mohammed Fneish told AFP on Friday.

Premier Saad Hariri, son of the slain former premier, is expected to tackle the STL’s issue among other domestic and regional developments on Saturday during an iftar which is to be held at the premier’s residence in Qoreitem, following his return from a vacation in Sardinia.

Beirut MP Ammar Houri, a member of the Future Bloc, told The Daily Star that Hariri “will deal with the tribunal in general terms, and won’t discuss details.”

He reiterated that the Future bloc’s stance on the STL was expressed on Tuesday in an official statement, when the group welcomed all information, including that presented by the leader of Hizbullah, that could help in the investigation.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that his party wasn’t interested in cooperating with the STL, calling it an “Israeli project.”

Fneish told AFP that “our position has not changed, however. Our evidence is in the hands of the Lebanese government … but that does not alter our view of the tribunal, which is that it has no credibility.”

Bellemare’s office on Wednesday called on the Lebanese authorities to submit all material related to the murder in the possession of Nasrallah, who claims Israel was behind the February 14, 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.

A well-informed judicial source told The Daily Star that on the following day, Public Prosecutor Said Mirza informed Hizbullah security official Wafiq Safa about the STL’s request.

Mirza told the Central News Agency (CNA) on Friday that the judiciary has yet to receive any documents from Hizbullah, following the verbal request by the general prosecution.

The STL statement came days after Nasrallah produced several undated clips of aerial footage of several areas in Lebanon which he said were intercepted from unmanned Israeli MK surveillance drones.

The clips included footage of the site of the Hariri assassination and other areas of the western part of the capital, as well as footage of Sidon and the road leading to Hariri’s residence in Faqra, Kesrouan.

Nasrallah has repeatedly attacked the tribunal’s credibility after Western and Israeli media reports claimed that the STL indictment would accuse Hizbullah members of involvement in the murder.

Nasrallah said he would cooperate with the government and present the Cabinet with his findings.

While parliamentary opposition officials called on the Cabinet to form a committee to investigate the murder, March 14 parties continue to voice trust in the STL and stress that no internal body could be substituted for the UN-backed tribunal.

State Minister Jean Hogassapian stressed Friday “the impossibility of substituting the international probe by a local one, since the Lebanese judiciary’s request for the STL to handle the investigations in the assassination means the file was closed in Lebanon, and transferred to the STL completely.”

Separately, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt warned Friday against politicizing the STL, saying “it could lead to major tensions in the country particularly in line with Israeli threats which warned of strife following the issuing of the STL indictment.”

Jumblatt made his statements in Paris during a meeting with Nicolas Gali, assistant to the French president’s diplomatic consultant Jean David Levitt.

The meeting was later joined by US Secretary of State Assistant for Middle Eastern Affairs Jeffry Feltman, who also held talks with Jumblatt.

Jumblatt stressed during discussions the need “to weigh all options and assumptions and take into consideration all evidence that could lead to the truth.”

For their part, the French and US officials stressed that their “administrations will not interfere in the UN probe and STL’s work,” The CNA reported.

STL spokesperson Fatima al-Issawi told Al-Arabiya TV on Friday that Bellemare was the only authority entitled to conduct an investigation and indict individuals.

Issawi also stressed that Bellemare’s office was autonomous from the tribunal.

The Hariri assassination triggered an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005 after a deployment of almost three decades.

The murder has been widely blamed on Syria, but Damascus consistently denies involvement. – The Daily Star with Agencies.