March 14 to Submit to U.N. Petition Asking STL to Probe All Assassinations of March 14 Figures

March 14's MPs announced Friday that they have decided to submit to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon a petition demanding the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to cover all the assassinations that targeted March 14 figures after Dec. 12, 2005 – the day MP Gebran Tueni was murdered.

The announcement was made during a mass rally commemorating the ninth anniversary of former premier Rafik Hariri's assassination at the BIEL exhibition center in Beirut.

The event kicked off with a video featuring statements by a number of March 8 figures against the U.N.-backed STL, which was followed by a recorded speech marking the occasion by Nazek Hariri, ex-PM Rafik Hariri's widow.

A video about the assassination operations that started with the 2004 attempt on MP Marwan Hamadeh's life as well as the popular demos and developments that followed Hariri's 2005 assassination was also played at the rally.

The gathering also involved a video about the slain premier's life and another featuring STL co-prosecutor Alexander Milne's interventions at the in absentia trials that started on January 16, and testimonies from relatives of Feb. 14 victims.

In a speech at the rally, former justice minister Charles Rizk said “the judicial establishment that was created because of his martyrdom (STL) was the first response against those who tried to assassinate him again after his death."

“Rafik Hariri reminds us that we have no other choice but the state,” Rizk said.

“Violence has never reached this extent in the Middle East and it is crossing our border while there is no state to deter it,” he lamented.

The STL is probing the Feb. 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri and 22 other people in a massive bombing in Beirut's Ain el-Mreisseh area.

The STL's mandate covers Hariri's murder and other attacks that occurred in Lebanon between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005.

On December 13, 2005, the Lebanese government asked the United Nations to establish a tribunal of an international character to try all those who are alleged responsible for the attack of February 14, 2005.

Pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1664 (2006), the United Nations and the Lebanese Republic negotiated an agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Further to Security Council Resolution 1757 (2007), the Statute of the Special Tribunal entered into force on June 10, 2007.

The tribunal has also established jurisdiction over three attacks relating to MP Marwan Hamadeh, former Lebanese Communist Party chief George Hawi and former defense minister Elias Murr, deeming them of similar nature to Hariri's assassination.

The tribunal’s jurisdiction can be extended beyond the period between February 14, 2005 and December 12, 2005 if the tribunal finds that the attacks in question are connected in accordance with the principles of criminal justice and are of a nature and gravity similar to the Feb. 14 attack.

This connection includes but is not limited to a combination of the following elements: criminal intent (motive), the purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks (modus operandi), and the perpetrators.

Crimes that occurred after December 12, 2005 can be eligible to be included in the tribunal’s jurisdiction under the same criteria if it is so decided by the Lebanese government and the United Nations and with the consent of the Security Council.

On Tuesday, the STL Trial Chamber approved a request from the Prosecution to join the case against the accused Hassan Habib Merhi to the case against Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Assad Sabra and Hussein Oneissi, whose in absentia trial had started on January 16.

The court said the five accused are members of Hizbullah.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the STL, describing it as an American-Israeli conspiracy against his party. He has vowed never to cooperate with the tribunal, saying that the suspects will never be found.