Fransen Hasn’t Yet Decided on Making Public Entire Indictment or Only Part of it

Pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen is mulling whether to make the entire indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder case public or keep parts of it confidential, Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef has unveiled.

Youssef told MTV on Monday that Fransen is still thinking about the issue. He has till August 11 when the 30-day period given to Lebanon to serve out the arrest warrants against four Hizbullah members ends.

If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the tribunal can then publicly call on them to surrender.

“We expect the Lebanese government to fully cooperate with the tribunal and after the 30-day period the court’s president will look into the reports presented to him by the Lebanese authorities and will decide if they had done enough effort to arrest the four suspects,” Youssef said.

He denied that Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare had delivered Fransen another indictment.

The spokesman also said that Lebanon has financial obligations towards the STL. “We haven’t yet received its financial commitments.”

Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1757, Lebanon should provide roughly half of the court’s annual running costs, which for 2011 amounts to $65 million.

Al-Liwaa daily said Bellemare is in New York to follow-up with U.N. officials the issue of the court’s funding and the arrest warrants.