BEIRUT: Although the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has said that
it has no authority to press charges against the so-called false witnesses in
the investigation of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,
recently captured Hussam Hussam is wanted by Lebanon’s judiciary in two
criminal cases.
A judicial source told The Daily Star Tuesday that Beirut’s
investigative judge issued an arrest warrant for Hussam in 2008 for allegedly
making threats against journalist Fares Khashan, and the Syrian national is
also wanted on charges of fraud issued by the investigative judge in the south.
A Syrian rebel group announced in a video posted on YouTube
Sunday that it had captured Hussam, who gave testimony to the STL’s
predecessor, the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission,
alleging that Syrian and Lebanese security chiefs were involved in the bombing
that claimed the lives of Hariri and 22 others.
Asked whether he had any information about the assassination of
Hariri, Hussam said in the video: “Just let me reach Beirut and I will reveal
surprises that you have never dreamed of.”
The rebel speaking in the video also promised to send Hussam to
former Prime Minister Saad Hariri as a “gift.”
But former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who heads Hariri’s
Future parliamentary bloc, said that the Future Movement has nothing to do with
the matter.
“This is a judicial matter in which the international tribunal
has a say,” the Sidon MP told The Daily Star. Siniora said the movement would
not be contacting Hussam at all.
Hussam, 36, gave testimony in 2005 to the UNIIIC, which was
probing the assassination of the former statesman. A few months later, Hussam
held a news conference in Damascus, recanting his testimony and lashing out at
Saad Hariri and the March 14 coalition.
During the UNIIIC’s investigation, four Lebanese generals were
held almost four years in connection with the Hariri case before the STL
ordered they be freed.
An STL spokesperson could not be reached by The Daily Star
Tuesday for comment on Hussam’s capture, but last year, its Appeals Chamber
ruled that the U.N.-backed court has no jurisdiction to look into the case of
false witnesses.
“The individuals who were interviewed during the mandate of the
United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission [UNIIIC] are
not witnesses before the tribunal, as their evidence has not been presented to
the Trial Chamber,” it said.
The STL said that “no provision in our statute allows the
tribunal to assert jurisdiction over criminal offenses which might have taken
place before the creation of the tribunal, other than those listed in Article 1
of the Statute,” added the decision.
Article 1 specifies that the STL has jurisdiction over the
attack that killed Hariri, as well as connected attacks in 2004 and 2005. STL
President David Baragwanath has said the court could broach the issue, but only
if Lebanon and the U.N. Security Council first extend its mandate.
The family of former head of the Lebanese Communist Party George
Hawi, who was killed in a bomb blast in June 2005, filed a lawsuit against
Hussam after photos were released of him at the crime scene shortly after the
attack.
The STL is investigating Hawi’s case in addition to other
connected cases under its jurisdiction.
Another case that could involve Hussam is the attempted
assassination of journalist May Chidiac. The March 14 journalist who survived
the attempt on her life in September 2005, says that Hussam came to the
hospital where she was transferred shortly after the attack to see whether she
passed away.
The
Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition has labeled Hussam, along with Mohammad Zuheir
al-Siddiq and others, “false witnesses” who mislead the international
investigation into Hariri’s assassination.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-25/181879-hussam-fugitive-from-lebanese-justice.ashx#axzz21WxW3tDz
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