BEIRUT: Former Prosecutor for the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon Daniel Bellemare has made statements that appear
to indicate his belief that Hezbollah is implicated in the assassination of
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Speaking about evidence concerning
interconnected cellphone networks that resulted in the indictment last year of
four members of the resistance party, Bellemare is quoted in a Canadian
newspaper as saying: “Hezbollah didn’t know at the time that the cellphones
were leaving traces. After that, the line went dead.”
The statement marks the first time
Bellemare referred to Hezbollah directly. Previously, Bellemare had left open
the possibility that the four indicted individuals, although benefiting from
expertise gained through their membership in Hezbollah, could have carried out
the attack without the knowledge of the party.
In Bellemare’s indictment, which the
STL published in full two months after it was issued in March 2011, he
concludes that given two of the four suspects’ standing in Hezbollah, they “had
the capability” to kill Hariri.
The four men indicted for the
attack, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi
and Assad Hasan Sabra, are accused of terrorism and intentional homicide.
Hezbollah has denied the
allegations, with the party’s chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah describing the
suspects as honorable men who have fought against Israel.
The resistance party has maintained
that the U.N.-backed court is an “Israeli-U.S.” tool targeting the party and
aiming to sow sectarian strife in the country. Nasrallah has also questioned
the credibility of Bellemare and accused his team of having ties to the CIA.
In his interview with the Ottawa
Citizen, the first since he retired in late February, Bellemare described
Nasrallah’s accusations as “insulting,” saying: “We were always driven by one
thing: to find the truth.”
The STL is a divisive issue in
Lebanon, with the March 14 coalition insisting that the court is the only means
to achieve justice, while the March 8 alliance supports Hezbollah’s stance.
Bellemare announced last December
that he would not seek to be reappointed as prosecutor for the court’s second
mandate.
In the interview, Bellemare also
revealed that donor countries were eager to issue indictments.
“A lot of people wanted a quick
indictment,” Bellemare said. “I resisted that all along. This is not the way we
have been trained. This is not the way it should be done.”
He also talked about calls “to pull
the plug” on the court.
According to Bellemare: “The
pressure we had was unbelievable. Donor countries wanted to see results. But
when you can’t discuss the investigation, you have to tell them, trust me, it’s
moving along.”
When the arrest warrants were issued
for the four suspects, Hezbollah said that it would never turn over the men.
After failing to arrest the
suspects, the court decided last month to try the four men in absentia.
Bellemare, however, seemed
optimistic that those who had assassinated Hariri would be tried and brought to
justice: “I never despair,” he said.
He also said the court was a first
step for Lebanon to show that perpetrators are held to account.
“Now, what people want is to send a
clear message: Nobody’s above the law,” Bellemare said. “If you commit a crime,
you will pay. This, to me, is a huge, huge step forward.”
Separately, the STL announced in a
statement that Bellemare’s successor, Norman Farrell, as well as the Daniel
Nsereko, the new Appeals Chamber judge, were sworn in.
“It is my devout hope and expectation that, with
both prosecution and defense teams in place and the Chambers now back to full
strength, we can together deliver justice in accordance with the law,” said
Judge David Baragwanath, the head of the STL, during the swearing-in ceremony.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Mar-14/166594-bellemare-implies-hezbollah-implicated-in-hariri-killing.ashx#axzz1p511kN7d
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