Naharnet - Bellemare's Office: Investigators Did Not Breach Ethical, Religious Norms - October 30, 2010

The Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday stressed that the U.N. investigators did not breach "ethical, religious and humanitarian norms" during their recent visit to a gynecology clinic in Beirut Southern Suburbs.
"Statements in relation to the recent attack against staff of the STL alleging that the investigators examined gynecologist's patient records in breach of ethical, religious and humanitarian norms are false," STL Prosecutor Danielle Bellemare's office said in a press release.

"As the medical doctor interviewed by representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor confirmed in her media interviews, the investigators were not seeking any medical information from her," the OTP went on to say.

"Moreover, she had canceled all her appointments for that morning, so that no women would be inconvenienced by the investigators' visit," the OTP noted.

It stressed that the process leading to the visit was handled professionally and in accordance with legal safeguards.

"The visit had been approved by the Lebanese authorities. The investigators were accompanied by members of the judicial police and the army. The doctor had received approval from the Beirut Order of Physicians to meet with the OTP investigators, and had agreed to the meeting," Bellemare's office clarified.

It noted that "in contrast to the legality and legitimacy of the meeting, STL staff members were assaulted by the attackers and had their STL property stolen."

In a brief televised address on Thursday, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted that the U.N.-backed investigation into the murder of ex-PM Rafik Hariri has reached "a sensitive point, which is related to our honor and dignity, the thing that requires us to have a different stance."

Nasrallah called on "every official and every citizen to boycott the work of U.N. investigators."

"We ask everyone: who among you accepts the idea of someone taking a look at the gynecology files of a mother, a sister or a daughter?" he added.

Quoting legal experts, Nasrallah described the investigators' step as "illegal," adding that it insults "religious and moral values."

Nasrallah's speech came one day after two investigators from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon were attacked by a group of angry women at a gynecology clinic in a Hizbullah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
The investigators had requested information on patients from the clinic's head doctor and were leaving when about 30 women charged at the pair and snatched a briefcase from them.