Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed to AFP on Friday the names of four Hezbollah members charged by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"The names of the four suspects revealed by the local media are the same as those mentioned in the arrest warrants submitted by the STL," he said.
Charbel was referring to a sealed indictment and related arrest warrants delivered by the STL on Thursday to Attorney General Said Mirza.
He also said Mirza had given him the arrest warrants early Friday and confirmed the identity of the four suspects as Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Assad Sabra and Hussein Anaissi.
Their whereabouts are unknown.
Charbel questioned leaks concerning the indictment given that it is sealed and said this could harm efforts to nab suspects.
"Because of this, we have lost the element of surprise," he said. "We are going to look for the suspects but we don't know if we will find them."
He pointed out that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 outstanding arrest warrants in Lebanon.
Charbel added that a meeting among all concerned security services was planned Saturday to coordinate search operations for the suspects.
"We have to address this issue calmly and wisely to preserve the civil peace," he said. "If the situation explodes, everyone loses.”
Badreddine is the brother-in-law of top Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyeh, who was murdered in a 2008 bombing in Damascus.
He is suspected of having masterminded the February 14, 2005 seaside bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
Ayyash, another senior party official who holds US citizenship, allegedly carried out the attack.
Sabra and Anaissi allegedly coordinated with Ahmad Abu Adas, a Palestinian who contacted Al-Jazeera television following the Hariri assassination to claim responsibility for the bombing.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon
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