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Bellemare submits draft
indictment in Hariri-linked cases: report
BEIRUT: Al-Akhbar reported
Friday that the prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has
submitted a new draft indictment in the attempted assassinations of former
Deputy Prime Minister Elias Murr and MP Marwan Hamdeh and in the
assassination of former Communist Party leader George Hawi.
The local newspaper also said
General Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare had also submitted additional documents
related to the indictment in the case of slain five-time former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bomb on Feb. 14,
2005.
When contacted by The Daily
Star, STL spokesperson Marten Youssef said it was up to the prosecutor to
decide when to file an indictment for review to the pre-trial judge.
"It is also his prerogative
to file it confidentially and ex-parte, in which case, we would not be
privy to that filing," Youssef said in an email.
Al-Akhbar quoted sources close
to the office of the general prosecution as saying that “Bellemare has
delivered a new draft indictment” related to the cases of Murr, Hamadeh and
Hawi to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen.
Fransen, the paper said, would
assess the indictment and has the ability to ask the prosecution for
additional material if the accusation is not sufficient.
The STL, established in 2007 to
probe the assassination of Hariri, has established links between Hariri's
case and the three politicians.
In October 2004, Hamadeh was
targeted by a car bomb which left him seriously wounded, while Murr was
targeted on July 12, 2005. Hawi was assassinated on June 21, 2005.
In June 2011, four members of
Hezbollah – Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan
Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra – were named in an indictment by the
U.N.-backed court.
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan
Nasrallah has said that that the four would never be apprehended, despite
calls by Lebanese politicians for the resistance party to hand over the
suspects.
Hamadeh has accused Syria and
Iran of being behind the spate of assassinations between 2004 and 2010.
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