August 15, 2010 - Now Lebanon - Hashem calls for commission to deal with false witnesses

Speaking to Al-Manar television on Sunday, Change and Reform bloc MP Abbas Hashem called for “the formation of a ministerial-parliamentary commission, including representatives from security agencies as well as effective Arab participation, to begin dealing with false witnesses” in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) investigation.

Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement have agreed to request such a commission “as a condition for positive interaction with the international tribunal,” Al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Saturday.

In July, the STL heard a request by Brigadier General Jamil as-Sayyed for documents related to his detention from 2005 to 2009 on suspicion of involvement in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination. The STL ordered his release along with three other detainees in April 2009 due to lack of evidence, and Sayyed claims he is the victim of false witnesses.

There should be a formal understanding between Hezbollah and the Lebanese judiciary “guaranteeing justice,” since Hezbollah is now a “partner and not the accused,” in the STL’s investigation, Hashem said.

Regarding Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s speech Saturday, in which he said he alone chooses when to speak, Hashem said, “Silence is sometimes beneficial, but sometimes it is more harmful… what good is Hariri’s silence when everyone around him is talking?”

He added that Hariri should act like his father, who “understood Lebanon’s internal structure.”

-NOW Lebanon