Women in Dahiyeh Gynecology Clinic Clash with STL Investigators
A group of women charged at investigators from a U.N. probe into the murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri at a Beirut Southern Suburbs gynecology clinic Wednesday, snatching a briefcase but causing no injuries, a doctor said.
Doctor Iman Sharara, who runs the private obstetrics and gynecology clinic, told reporters a team of two male investigators, their female translator and a plain clothes security officer arrived at her practice mid-morning on a scheduled appointment.
"They asked me for the phone numbers of between 14 and 17 people who visited my practice since 2003 and I told them it would take me some time to review my files," she said at her clinic in the Hizbullah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.
When she opened the door to inform her secretary of the files needed, Sharara said she was surprised to see a crowd of some 30 women had stormed the waiting room although she had canceled all appointments that morning.
A security source told Agence France Presse the angry women rushed towards the interrogators, shouting insults at them, and managed to wrangle a briefcase from the pair who escaped unscathed.
"The Office of the Prosecutor takes this incident very seriously and we are currently looking into it," the media relations unit of the The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) told AFP by email.
Sharara's lawyer Mustafa Shqeir told reporters his client had sought legal advice and conferred with the medical practitioners' union before agreeing to meet the investigators.
"We are still willing to cooperate with Lebanese authorities and investigators representing the tribunal as per international decree and procedure," Shqeir said.
MP Yassine Jaber of the AMAL Movement, an ally of Hizbullah, said the incident was a sign the tribunal was "not welcome" in Lebanon, in an interview with local television.
Hizbullah's Al-Manar television said the quarrel erupted before noon when investigators "surprisingly" entered the clinic of Sharara.
It gave no other details.
LBC television station, however, said the squabble developed when demonstrators, "about 150 women", stormed the clinic where two STL investigators and an interpreter were.
NBN TV said the STL investigation team forced its way into the clinic, adding that security forces intervened to prevent further escalation.
The U.N.-backed STL was set up by a 2007 U.N. resolution to find and try the killers of Hariri, who was assassinated in a massive Beirut bombing on February 14, 2005.
Lebanon is facing a full-blown crisis over the tribunal as unconfirmed reports indicate it is set to accuse members of Hizbullah.
Hizbullah has confirmed several of its members, both male and female, have been interrogated in connection with the Hariri murder.
The Syrian- and Iranian-backed party has also accused the United Nations of interfering in Lebanese affairs and warned such an eventuality will have repercussions in Lebanon, calling instead for a local investigation.
Saudi-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain ex-premier, has meanwhile vowed to see the tribunal through.(Naharnet-AFP)
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