Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Moussawi slammed on Thursday the indictment by the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which said it has enough evidence to try the four Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
“Whoever reads the so-called STL indictment can make many remarks on both its content and form,” Moussawi told OTV station.
“The information previously leaked to the media matched exactly the indictment that was unsealed; and in terms of content, we ask where is the evidence presented since the indictment mentioned nine times the expression ‘it is possible to conclude or can be concluded’?”
“This indictment is politicized.”
His statement comes after Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Nasrallah on Wednesday slammed the STL’s published indictment and reiterated that the international court is a US-Israeli plan to incite sectarian strife in the country.
MP Fadlallah
Similarly Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah slammed the STL and said on Thursday that the UN-backed court “has become the accused.”
“The tribunal has become the accused, and not the Resistance,” Fadlallah told New TV.
He added that “the evidence submitted by STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare is clearly unreliable .”
“This indictment is dangerous and incites domestic strife…. it is politicized par excellence.”
Fadlallah also said that Prime Minister Najib Mikati “knows how to act” regarding Lebanon’s position vis a vis the STL.
Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Franjieh said on Thursday that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) indictment is a “plan targeting the Resistance.”
“This is typical, this is a decision taken and everything else is details, but our position was and will always be [in support] of the Resistance,” he told Al-Manar television, referring to the Syrian- Iranian-backed Hezbollah group.
“The efforts to [harm] the Resistance started in the 2006 July War and now [continue with] the STL… but we will see who will win in the end,” Franjieh added.
Hezbollah ally
Marada leader responded , a key ally of Syria and Hezbollah attacked opposition leader Saad Hariri’s comments about the unsealing of the indictments and said that the former prime minister believes that the 2005 assassination of his father, is more important than Lebanon.
“In the past, when Syria was accused of assassinating Rafik Hariri , Saad was hoping that the Syrians were behind the operation… and now he wishes that Hezbollah is the party who did it. Feelings of hatred are stronger than the will to reveal who killed his father,” Franjieh said.
“Saad Hariri is a fertile ground for foreign countries to target the Resistance.”
Saad Hariri said on Wednesday night that Nasrallah “is dragging the Shiites in Lebanon into the circle of danger,” shortly after the Hezbollah leader dismissed the tribunal’s unsealed evidence linking four Hezbollah members to Hariri’s 2005 murder.
STL indicted four members of the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah group in connection to the Hariri murder, but Nasrallah in July ruled out their arrest.
Pointless
March 14 MP Ammar Houri commented on Thursday over Hezbollah’s “uproar” over the indictment by saying “ this does not acquit the suspects.”
“Facing the STL’s indictment through media uproars does not yield results and does not make the accused ] innocent,” the MP told Future TV
He also said that Hezbollah benefits by turning over the suspects to the tribunal.
“The court will pursue its work, and the trial will take place even if it is in absentia,” Houri added.
He also said that Nasrallah is using Lebanon’s Shiite sect as a façade “to hide the indicted men behind it.”
“This behavior raises suspicions.”
The STL indicted four members of the Iranian- Syrian-backed Hezbollah group in connection to the Hariri murder, but Nasrallah in July ruled out their arrest.