July 26, 2010 - Daily Star -Nasrallah: Probe tribunal's false witnesses

Hizbullah leader expects 50 members of his party to be indicted
By Wassim Mroueh

BEIRUT: Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called for the formation of a committee tasked with investigating false witnesses that misled probes into former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination on Sunday.

“Go sit with them, and ask them who fabricated information for you,” said Nasrallah, addressing members of the would-be committee, adding that many Lebanese figures were involved in fabricating false witnesses and had answers.

He said his party was ready to join a cabinet or a National Dialogue session if it led to the formation of such a committee.

“We reject sitting with any side that will deal with us as accused individuals and try to reach a settlement,” he said. Last week, he said he expected members of his party to be indicted for the assassination.

But he said his party was ready to participate in the session if it aimed at protecting Lebanon and the resistance from an upcoming conspiracy, stressing that Hizbullah was not looking for a way out.

He addressed Hizbullah supporters gathered at the Martyrs Hall in the Beirut southern suburb to honor families of the party’s fallen via video link.

Nasrallah said the US and Israel wanted to target Hizbullah by fabricating an indictment of the party’s members in the assassination, after earlier attempts to do so hit dead ends.

He confirmed Israeli media reports about a Hizbullah indictment by the Special Tribunal For Lebanon, saying the international court itself was the source of the Israeli information.

“First, three indictments will be issued, then five, then 20 and then 50,” he added.

“Their problem [they have] with the resistance is that it rejects a weak Lebanon … and prevents the imposition of an American-Israeli settlement that wants to confiscate land.”

Nasrallah emphasized his party’s keenness in achieving justice and reaching the truth regarding Hariri’s assassination.

“Justice is based on truth, anything not based on truth is a second assassination of Prime Minister Hariri,” he added.

“We will not allow any small or large party in this world to hurt the dignity of the resistance,” he asserted.

He said the behavior of the STL would not eventually lead to revealing the truth regarding the assassination.

Nasrallah justified his position by saying the STL did nothing to hold false witnesses, along with their supporters, to account.

He lashed out at the tribunal for refraining from investigating four false witnesses, including Mohammad Zuheir al-Siddiq, under the pretext of lacking authority to do so. The Hizbullah chief said some false witnesses were still enjoying the STL’s support.

“Hold them [to] account, punish them, or at least expel them from within your ranks,” added Nasrallah, addressing the STL.

He also expressed surprise that the supporters of those false witnesses, some of whom he said included Lebanese individuals and foreign officers in the international investigation committee, were not held accountable by the STL.

Nasrallah furthermore discredited the STL, by saying it had kicked off its investigations with the probability that Hizbullah was implicated in the assassination in mind. “They came up with an accusation, a verdict and searched for evidence to support it,” said Nasrallah, adding that technical, transparent and fair investigations should work on all possibilities regarding the assassination.

Nasrallah also met Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud on Saturday. Hizbullah said talks between the two focused on recent developments in the country. The meeting was attended by Hizbullah’s security apparatus chief Wafiq Safa.

In a recent address, Nasrallah urged Baroud to investigate whether the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch had knowledge about Israeli agent, Charbel Qazzi, before he had been rounded up by Lebanese Army intelligence.