Charbel: Security Apparatuses to Meet Saturday to ‘Coordinate Search’ for Hariri Murder Suspects
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced Friday that a meeting for all concerned security apparatuses will be held Saturday to coordinate search operations for the suspects charged by a U.N.-backed court in connection with the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri.
"We have to address this issue calmly and wisely to preserve the civil peace," Charbel told Agence France Presse.
Charbel confirmed that "the names of the four suspects revealed by the local media are the same as those mentioned in the arrest warrants submitted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon."
He was referring to a sealed indictment and related arrest warrants delivered by the STL on Thursday to Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza.
Charbel told AFP that Mirza had given him the arrest warrants early Friday and confirmed the identity of the four suspects as Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Assad Sabra, and Hussein Aneissy.
He later denied in a press release on Friday that he had identified the four suspects’ affiliation to Hizbullah.
"If the situation explodes, everyone loses,” he stressed.
Charbel questioned media leaks on the indictment given that it is sealed and said this could harm efforts to nab suspects.
"Because of this, we have lost the element of surprise," he said. "We are going to look for the suspects but we don't know if we will find them."
The minister told LBC television on Thursday night that the indictment will not have any impact on the ground.
He stressed that the “accused are innocent until proven guilty.”
“Everything is under surveillance and control,” Charbel stressed.
He pointed out that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 outstanding arrest warrants in Lebanon.
The suspect, Badreddine is the brother-in-law of top Hizbullah operative Imad Mughniyeh, who was murdered in a 2008 bombing in Damascus.
He is suspected of having masterminded the February 14, 2005, seaside bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
Ayyash, another senior party official who holds U.S. citizenship, allegedly carried out the attack.
Sabra and Aneissy allegedly coordinated with Ahmed Abu Adas, a Palestinian who contacted al-Jazeera television following the Hariri assassination to claim responsibility for the bombing. (AFP - Naharnet)
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