August 24, 2010 - Daily Star - Nasrallah speech expected to tackle STL, false witnesses

BEIRUT: The content and tone of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech scheduled for Tuesday remained a mystery on Monday.


It was still unknown whether Nasrallah would tackle the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and add to evidence he revealed on August 3 pointing at Israel’s possible involvement in the crime.


Sources close to Hizbullah told the Central News Agency (CNA) that Tuesday’s address is expected to tackle the government’s decision to follow up on the issue of false witnesses. In its latest session, the Cabinet asked Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar to investigate the issue.


Nasrallah will also speak on Thursday and on the International Al-Quds Day, which falls on the last Friday of Ramadan.


The sources told the CNA that Nasrallah’s speech to mark the latter will focus on “heavy” political issues.


A well-informed judicial source told The Daily Star on Sunday that evidence provided by Hizbullah regarding Hariri’s assassination would delay an impending indictment by the UN-backed tribunal investigating the murder.


During a news conference Nasrallah screened video clips of alleged Israeli drone surveillance footage intercepted by Hizbullah that showed routes Hariri used to frequent, including the area where he was killed on February 14, 2005.


Nasrallah also aired the confessions of an Israeli agent who said he had been tasked by Israel to convince Hariri’s security personnel that Hizbullah was intending to assassinate Hariri.


Following a request by STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare for the disclosed evidence, Hizbullah refused to hand over the data directly, saying it had no faith in the Tribunal.


But Hizbullah submitted last week the evidence to State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who in turn supplied Bellemare’s office in Beirut with the requested data.



Meanwhile, the parliamentary majority blasted on Monday the campaign against Najjar, saying the minority wanted to pressure the justice minister into issuing a report that ran contrary to his convictions.


As-Safir newspaper on Monday quoted a senior Hizbullah official as saying that “Hizbullah, just like many others, have a lot of question marks after Lebanese Forces Minister Ibrahim Najjar was tasked with following up on the issue of false witnesses.”


Also, Hizbullah politburo member Mahmoud Qomati told OTV on Monday that the STL had lost its credibility, adding that his party was no longer interested with its pending indictment.


Also commenting on the issue of the STL, Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader MP Walid Jumblatt called for taking “maximum” advantage of the Syrian-Saudi entente in order to prevent civil strife in Lebanon.


In his weekly editorial in PSP’s Al-Anbaa newspaper, Jumblatt said strife in Lebanon could also be avoided by making a clear difference between the STL and the indictment.


He said such a differentiation would safeguard the tribunal against politicization and manipulation.


Former head of General Security Jamil al-Sayyed, who was detained for alleged involvement in Hariri’s assassination said on Monday the murder of the former prime minister had been designed to implicate Syria and ignite Lebanon.


Sayyed was freed in April 2009 after spending nearly four years in jail along with three other generals after the STL ordered their release on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to indict them for Hariri’s assassination. – The Daily Star