The recent amendments to the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon’s indictment in the assassination of former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri has “confused” Hizbullah, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah
newspaper on Sunday.
A source monitoring the situation
told the newspaper that Hizbullah understood the amendment to be a precursor
for allowing the tribunal to accuse parties in the assassination of the former
premier.
STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen
has requested the Appeals Chamber to define the crime of “criminal association”
following the Prosecution’s recent request to amend the indictment, announced
the STL in a statement on Friday.
It did not explain whether the
amendment would indeed mean that parties can be accused of the February 2005
assassination.
The source added that the Hizbullah
leadership is now studying the amendments in order to determine how it will
properly deal with them.
“Hizbullah leaderships believed that
no one would dare accuse the party of being behind Hariri’s murder due to its
popular and military might,” said the source.
“The party was counting on the STL
to take into consideration civil peace in Lebanon and therefore it would have
refrained from accusing Hizbullah of being behind the crime seeing as such a
step would lead the party to a confrontation with the Lebanese society,” it
explained.
In addition, the Hizbullah
leaderships had believed that the tribunal was going to follow the example of
the international investigation commission that was only seeking to accuse
Syria of the assassination, said the source.
In August, the tribunal released its
first indictment in which it accused four Hizbullah members of being involved
in Hariri’s 2005 assassination.
Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine,
Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra are wanted for the February 2005 suicide car
bomb attack in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide
bomber.
Ayyash has been named in the
indictment as coordinator of the assassination team.
Ayyash and Badreddine face five
charges including that of "committing a terrorist act by means of an
explosive device" and homicide, while Oneissi and Sabra faced charges of
conspiring to commit the same acts.
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