Mirza Denies Receiving Copy of New STL Indictment
General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza denied on Friday that he received a copy of a new indictment in the attacks on the three officials that have been linked to ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder.
Mirza stressed to As Safir newspaper that “once he receives anything (new), he will announce it immediately.”
Reports had said that former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare will refer a new indictment to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen in the assassination attempts of MP Marwan Hamadeh and ex-Defense Minister Elias Murr, and the murder of former Communist party leader George Hawi before he leaves his post at the end of February for health reasons.
On Thursday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that Prime Minister Najib Miqati was expected to receive a copy of the new indictment.
Hawi was murdered in a car explosion in the Beirut neighborhood of Wata Moseitbeh in June 2005, while Murr was wounded in a bomb attack in Antelias in July 2005. Hamadeh was wounded in a similar attack in Beirut in 2004.
On Wednesday, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon named Norman Farrell of Canada as the new prosecutor of the tribunal probing the Feb. 2005 assassination of Hariri.
He also extended last week the mandate of the tribunal’s cooperation protocol with Lebanon for another three years.
The Hague-based tribunal indicted Hizbullah members Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Onaissi and Assad Sabra and sent arrest warrants for them to Lebanese authorities in June last year.
But the authorities in Lebanon have so far failed to arrest them.
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