Special Tribunal for Lebanon
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 February 8, 2012 the Prosecution
requested to amend the indictment in a confidential filing only to the
pre-trial judge,” it revealed.
The contents of the amended
indictment remain confidential, it said.
“The Prosecution is seeking to add a
new count to the indictment of ‘criminal association’, which is an offense
under the Lebanese Penal Code (article 335),” it explained.
Under the Tribunal’s Rules, the
pre-trial judge may ask the Appeals Chamber to deal with such preliminary
questions.
This happened last year when the
Appeals Chamber was asked to define terrorism and conspiracy, amongst other
crimes, added the STL statement.
It clarified that at that time, the
Appeals Chamber was not called on to define the crime of “criminal
association”.
The pre-trial judge will rely on the
Appeals Chamber’s definition in his review of the Prosecution’s request to
amend the indictment.
He can confirm or reject the
proposed amendments completely or in part, added the tribunal statement.
The statement came in light of media
reports on Friday that the STL had issued a new indictment in the case of the
assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The new indictment includes a fifth
suspect, who is a military member of Hizbullah, said a security source.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati later
received the STL’s Third Annual Report that has been issued by the president of
the tribunal and which has been referred to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Lebanese
officials.
General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza
denied on Friday that he received a copy of a new indictment in the attacks on
the three officials that have been linked to Hariri’s murder.
Mirza stressed to As Safir newspaper
that “once he receives anything (new), he will announce it immediately.”
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment