Now Lebanon - Sleiman’s comments show STL has lost its credibility, Moussawi says - September 27, 2010

President Michel Sleiman’s Sunday comments are “evidence that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has lost its credibility,” Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi told OTV on Monday.In an interview on Sunday evening, Sleiman said that the STL needs to “restore its credibility with the public by avoiding politicization” and should “demonstrate its independence.”Moussawi also said that he agrees with former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that threats and intimidation are not beneficial, but “the one threatening is he who says that the STL’s [indictment] is coming, and we will set up the gallows [for them].”“There is a growing feeling that the other camp does not want us to participate in governance, but the country can only be built on the basis of partnership,” he added.

The way to defuse the situation in Lebanon is to investigate the issue of false witnesses who gave testimony to the international investigation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 murder, as well as examining Israel’s involvement in the assassination, he added.