New TV reported that Lebanon has received International Criminal Police Organization ( INTERPOL) memo on the arrest warrants for the four suspects in the assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri .
But informed sources told Central News Agency on Saturday that the four suspects have left Lebanon, and one of them might have already been killed. The sources did not reveal who was killed or when did they leave the country.
The sources said that the international investigation commission has requested “ exact departure and arrival manifests from and into Beirut and the border crossings.”
Sources said that the criminal investigators are still not ruling out the possibility that the four suspects are still in Lebanon.
“They are carrying out discreet raids on some places they (the suspects) might have taken refuge … without excluding any area in Lebanon,” the sources stressed.
INTERPOL reportedly issued an international memo against the names indicted by the Special tribunal for Lebanon ( STL).
Arrouwad.net website reported that INTERPOL publicized the memo to all countries including requests to detain and arrest the named persons pending their transfer to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon headquarters at The Hague.
The memo includes the names of 21 people, the website Arrouwad.net reported and added that Egypt has already received INTERPOL’s memo.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued the indictments in the assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Hariri on June 30. An STL delegation met with Lebanon’s state prosecutor Said Mirza and handed him a copy of the Lebanon portion of the indictment and the arrest warrants. Two of the suspects Mustafa Badreddine and Salim Ayyash are reportedly senior members of the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah while the other two Hassan Aneissy, also known as Hassan Issa, and Assad Sabra played a supporting role in the execution of the assassination
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah denounced on several occasions the court as a conspiracy by the U.S. and Israel and said last year that the group “will cut off the hand” of anyone who tries to arrest its party members linked to the February 14, 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
Lebanon has 30 days to find and arrest the suspects but Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on July 2 that the party would not cooperate with the tribunal.
“No Lebanese government will be able to carry out any arrests whether in 30 days, 30 years or even 300 years.”
“We reject the Special Tribunal for Lebanon along with each and every void accusation it issues, which to us is the equivalent of an attack against Hezbollah,” Nasrallah added in his hour-long speech.
Nasrallah admitted all the four suspects are Hezbollah members:
“The suspects named in the indictment are brothers who have an honorable history in resisting Israeli occupation.” He said
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Friday that progress was reported over Special tribunal for Lebanon arrest warrants of the four Hezbollah suspects in the assassination of Lebanon’s former PM Rafik Hariri. Charbel did not elaborate on the progress
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