Hezbollah: We have buried STL indictment before being issued

Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Friday, according to a statement issued by Hezbollah:

“We have buried the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indictment before it has even been issued.”

Qassem also said: “They are using the American-Israeli STL to score a victory against us. The indictment will not change a thing so it has become worthless to us.”

“We are not worried. When we raise our tone regarding the STL , we are raising it for the sake of Lebanon,” he added.

“We advise to encourage the compromise in Lebanon that Syria and Saudi Arabia are working on… We want salvation for this country.” He said

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that the STL is a conspiracy that will “ vanish with the wind, just like all the past conspiracies.”

Hezbollah claims that STL is politicized and has threatened to “cut off the hand” of anyone who tries to arrest any of its members in the case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

March 14 MP Ahmad Fatfat told the Voice of Lebanon (VOL) on Friday.

“All we are asking for is to wait until the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) issues its indictment to find out whether it is politicized,”

Despite all leaks relating to the STL’s indictment, nothing confirms that the tribunal is politicized, Fatfat said.

Tension escalated in Lebanon following reports that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will soon issue its indictment into the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Last July, the Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the tribunal is “an Israeli project” that will indict Hezbollah members. Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind Hariri’s assassination but refused to provide the evidence to STL to support his claim. Hezbollah and its March 8 allies have been calling for the abolition of STL.

Some leaders are concerned that should the court indict Hezbollah members, it could lead to a Sunni Shitte strife

The Pro Syrian Al Akhbar newspaper reported earlier in the month that Hezbollah has prepared a plan to take over Lebanon when STL issues its indictment for the 2005 murder of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun , (a close ally of Hezbollah ) said on November 18 that Hezbollah might violently respond to an STL indictment that accuses Hezbollah party’s members in Hariri’s assassination.

On December 7 a leading Israeli Military Intelligence official expressed concerns that Hezbollah might seize control of Lebanese government institutions .

“Dozens will be killed when Hezbollah uses force and takes over government institutions,” senior Military Intelligence official Colonel Yossi Adler told the Knesset in ‘a possible scenario if Hezbollah is indicted by STL.’

March 8 politicians have called for the cabinet to task the Justice Council with investigating the issue of ( so called false ) witnesses who reportedly gave unreliable testimonies to the international probe into the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri. However, March 14 politicians believe that the regular judiciary should handle the matter.

Chairman of the Judicial and Administration Parliamentary Committee MP Robert Ghanem during an interview with “Arab week” and “Magazine” on Thursday explained the issue of false witnesses :

“ Article 408 and some other articles of the Lebanese Penal Code define the false witness as the person who testifies to the judicial authorities and provides contradictory testimony , but the testimony before the security forces or law enforcement authorities ( not in front of a judge ) is considered a false testimony”.