Daily Star - Bellemare: STL no longer interested in ex-witness Siddiq - September 4

BEIRUT: Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) prosecutor Daniel Bellemare reiterated that he was no longer interested in former witness Mohammad Zuheir Siddiq with regard to the ongoing investigation into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s murder.

“The evaluation of potential witnesses as determined earlier by the prosecutor’s office is a big part of the efforts and ongoing investigations to help the tribunal reveal the truth,” Bellemare’s office said in remarks published by the daily As-Safir on Friday.

Bellemare’s press office made his comments in response to As-Safir’s inquiry into whether Bellemare would address the issue of false witnesses.

Hizbullah has doubted the credibility of both the UN probe and the STL, calling the latter an Israeli project while stressing that the UN-backed tribunal failure to investigate “fabricated” false witnesses who misled investigations was a proof of the court’s lack of credibility.

Hizbullah earlier filed a lawsuit against Siddiq for misleading the investigation, after he recanted testimony before the UN probe in which he accused former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Syrian President Bashar Assad of involvement in the murder.

The issue of false witnesses has been subject to debate among Lebanese parties while the STL prosecutor insists that Siddiq was neither classified as a false witness nor a suspect in the murder.

“I will not comment on what Mr. Siddiq says. Basically, he is not somebody we will produce in court as a witness,” Bellemare said in remarks published by news website Now Lebanon on Monday referring to Siddiq’s accusations of Hizbullah protecting false witnesses.

Siddiq accused Hizbullah and Syrian intelligence services Friday of sponsoring false witnesses, in particular Hussam Hussam, a Syrian national currently residing in Syria, in an attempt to discredit the UN-backed tribunal.

Hussam was considered one of the principal witnesses in the investigation of Hariri’s assassination in 2005 before withdrawing his testimony.

Siddiq was arrested in the UAE and imprisoned for six months in 2009 on charges of holding a forged passport before being deported.

Earlier in 2005, Siddiq was arrested in France under an international warrant as part of the probe into Hariri’s murder but French judicial authorities refused to hand him over to Lebanon given the “absence of a guarantee that he would not be subject to the death penalty.”

He was freed in February 2006 and disappeared from his French home in 2008 before re- appearing in the UAE.

Bellemare’s office added in remarks published by As-Safir that the UN investigation committee and the STL were two separate bodies as the committee concluded its work on March 1 – the date the STL opened its investigations.

While the head of Hizbullah’s ally – the Amal Movement – Speaker Nabih Berri called for the distinction between the STL and the UN investigation committee, a stance also adopted by Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, Hizbullah rejects the formula.

But head of the STL’s defense office Francois Roux said in remarks on Friday that the STL’s defense attorney could call on previous witnesses to give their testimony before the UN-backed court.

“Members of the defense attorney’s team will have their own strategy regarding false witnesses and we should distinguish between false witnesses during the work of the UN investigation committee and testimonies to be presented before the tribunal,” Roux said in remarks published by the daily An-Nahar.

On Thursday, Roux signed a memorandum of understanding with Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar that “guarantees the mission of the defense’s office in line with paragraph 2 of article 13 of the STL’s by-laws,” the defense attorney told An-Nahar.