NOW Lebanon- Arslan says Mikati needs to open false witnesses file , December 4, 2011

Lebanese Democratic Party (LDP) leader MP Talal Arslan said on Sunday that now that Prime Minister Najib Mikati has transferred Lebanon’s annual share of funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Mikati is required to tackle the issue of witnesses who allegedly gave false testimony in the case of Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

“After the Prime Minister overcame his crisis with the least [possible] losses and [paid Lebanon’s share of the STL’s funding], thus preserving stability [in Lebanon]…[now] he needs to take the initiative and open [completely] the file of false witnesses,” the National News Agency (NNA) quoted Arslan as saying. 

Arslan’s party is a member of the pro-Syrian March 8 alliance spearheaded by Hezbollah, and is a rival of fellow Druze leader Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party.

“[The tribunal] did not give us the chance to mull over its internal system and [Lebanon’s share of the STL funding was paid through coercion],” Arslan said.

He added that the court’s “protocol was reinforced [in a way that violates] diplomatic codes and the powers of the [Lebanese presidency and] council of ministers,” NNA quoted Arslan as saying.

“What has been founded on [false testimonies] is invalid,” the LDP leader said.

Mikati announced on Wednesday that he transferred Lebanon’s annual share of funding to the UN-backed court probing the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. 

The Netherlands-based tribunal has indicted four Hezbollah operatives in connection with the murder, but they have not surrendered to the STL.

Lebanon is responsible for providing 49 percent of the STL's financing, which amounts to some $35 million (25.2 million euros) this year.

Arslan on Sunday said that preserving Hezbollah’s weapons, in cooperation with the Lebanese army and people, would pave the way toward “general stability in the country”.