Report: Miqati to Receive Copy of New Indictment on Thursday

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will receive on Thursday a copy of a new indictment in the attacks on the three officials that have been linked to ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

Media reports had said that Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen made a progress in preparing the indictments in the assassination attempts of MP Marwan Hamadeh and ex-Defense Minister Elias Murr, and the murder of former Communist party leader George Hawi.

Speculations have been made if former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare will issue a new indictment before he leaves his post at the end of February for health reasons.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon named on Wednesday Norman Farrell of Canada as the new prosecutor of the tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of Hariri.

Last week, Ban also extended the mandate of the tribunal’s cooperation protocol with Lebanon for another three years.

The Hague-based tribunal indicted Hizbullah members Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Onaissi and Assad Sabra and sent arrest warrants for them to Lebanese authorities in June last year.

But the authorities in Lebanon have so far failed to arrest them.