Bellemare: Full Story Will Only Unfold in Courtroom

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare welcomed on Wednesday the recent order of Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen to unseal the indictment in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Bellmare said: “This Order will finally inform the public and the victims about the facts alleged in the indictment regarding the commission of the crime that led to charging the four accused.”

He stressed that “the unsealing of the indictment answers many questions about the 14 February 2005 attack.”

He added: “The full story will however only unfold in the courtroom, where an open, public, fair and transparent trial will render a final verdict.”

The investigations of the Office of the Prosecutor are ongoing and preparations for trial continue, Bellemare said.

Fransen on Wednesday ordered that his decision confirming the indictment, as well as the indictment itself, be made public.

Last month, Fransen ordered confidentiality be partially dropped around the names and charges against Salim Ayyash, 47, Mustafa Badreddine, 50, Hussein Oneissi, 37 and Assad Sabra, 34.

Ayyash and Badreddine face among others, charges of "committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device" and homicide including Hariri's death, while Oneissi and Sabra faced charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.