During a televised speech on Thursday Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on all Lebanese to boycott Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) and to end all cooperation with its investigators.
“Whoever cooperates with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is working against the Resistance,” he said and accused STL of sending all data gathered on Lebanon to Israel.
” Cooperation with the investigators is a contribution to the assault on the resistance. We call on everyone to boycott these investigators, ” he stressed
The Hezbollah chief also said that investigators from the STL have threatened some people, including doctors and said he has ” evidence to prove it.”
Nasrallah addressed the issue of Wednesday’s incident in Dhahiya ,(a Hezbollah stronghold south of the capital, Beirut ) asking, “Why would the STL need the medical records of women affiliated with Hezbollah?”
“Who of you would agree to allow someone to look at the medical records of your women?” He asked
Nasrallah also said that the international tribunal was given access to all telecommunications information since 2003, files of students enrolled in Lebanese universities between 2003 and 2006 as well as the fingerprints of 893 Lebanese people.
He added he received information that the US is pressuring STL Prosecutor General Daniel Bellemare to speed up the process of issuing the verdict, reiterating that members of his party will be indicted in the Rafik Hariri murder.
Nasrallah also said : ” The investigation has already ended and the indictment has already been written and finalized, and it is the same one that was published by Der Spiegel and Le Figaro.”
“We have reached a very dangerous point where we can no longer remain silent…Our honor has been breached.” He said
According to reports by the local MTV station most of the women who attacked the two investigators affiliated with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) were clad in veils with their faces covered, and were believed to be men dressed in women clothes.
STL was created to try the killers of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in 2005.
The investigators had scheduled a meeting with Dr. Iman Charara – who runs the clinic.
Sharara, who runs the clinic, and is believed to have close links with Hezbollah, said the investigators who came to her office had previously scheduled the appointment and that they “wanted to know the phone numbers of some 14 to 17 people who had visited her clinic since 2003.”
“They asked me for the phone numbers of between 14 and 17 patients since 2003 and I told them it would take me some time to review my files,” she said
When she opened the door to inform her secretary of the files needed, Sharara said she was surprised to see the huge crowd women that stormed the waiting room although she had canceled all appointments for the morning.
Observers believe that the attack on the investigators was planned and carried by Hezbollah supporters aiming to convey to the UN tribunal in the Hague that it was unwelcome.
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, Hezbollah Secretary General 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 like MP Walid Jumblatt are concerned that should the court indict Hezbollah members, it could lead to a Shiite-Sunni strife, but others disagree since Hezbollah and its allies the Syrian backed Palestinian militants are the only armed militias in Lebanon.
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