iloubnan - Lebanon receives Hariri indictment: opposition - June 30, 2011

A UN-backed court probing the 2005 murder of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri on Thursday submitted a sealed indictment in the case to the country's prosecutor general, an opposition official told AFP. 

"Our information is that a group of legal experts from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today submitted to prosecutor general Saeed Mirza an indictment in the case," said Fares Soueid, a top member of the Western-backed "March 14" coalition headed by Hariri's son and political heir Saad Hariri. Television reports said four suspects are named in the long-awaited indictment, the contents of which were not made public. 

The reports said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, based in The Hague, had issued arrest warrants for the suspects. The STL's office could not be immediately joined for comment. 

One television station said at least one of the suspects is a member of the powerful militant group Hezbollah. 

The Iranian- and Syrian-backed group forced the collapse of Saad Hariri's government in January after he refused to stop cooperating with the tribunal. 

His successor, Najib Mikati, who was appointed with the blessing of Hezbollah, on Thursday was expected to issue his government's policy statement which clarifies Lebanon's stance on the STL. 

Lebanon, according to experts, now has 30 days to serve out the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the STL will when make public the indictment and summon the suspects to appear before the court. 

The findings of the tribunal have been the subject of wide speculation in Lebanon and there is fear that an indictment of members of Hezbollah, which dominates the new government, could spark sectarian unrest. 

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up in The Hague in 2009 by the United Nations to try those alleged to have carried out the bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 others. 

Hariri was killed with 22 others on February 14, 2005 when a massive blast struck his motorcade in a fashionable seafront district of Beirut, sending tremors through a country still haunted by memories of its 1975-1990 civil war. 

The murder sparked the so-called Cedar Revolution, a wave of mass protests that, combined with international pressure, forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year deployment. 

Hariri, who was 60 when he was killed, headed five Lebanese governments between the years 1992 to 1998 and 2000 to 2004, when he stepped down from premiership.