Report: Recent STL Amendments Confuse Hizbullah

The recent amendments to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s indictment in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has “confused” Hizbullah, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper on Sunday.

A source monitoring the situation told the newspaper that Hizbullah understood the amendment to be a precursor for allowing the tribunal to accuse parties in the assassination of the former premier.

STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen has requested the Appeals Chamber to define the crime of “criminal association” following the Prosecution’s recent request to amend the indictment, announced the STL in a statement on Friday.

It did not explain whether the amendment would indeed mean that parties can be accused of the February 2005 assassination.

The source added that the Hizbullah leadership is now studying the amendments in order to determine how it will properly deal with them.

“Hizbullah leaderships believed that no one would dare accuse the party of being behind Hariri’s murder due to its popular and military might,” said the source.

“The party was counting on the STL to take into consideration civil peace in Lebanon and therefore it would have refrained from accusing Hizbullah of being behind the crime seeing as such a step would lead the party to a confrontation with the Lebanese society,” it explained.

In addition, the Hizbullah leaderships had believed that the tribunal was going to follow the example of the international investigation commission that was only seeking to accuse Syria of the assassination, said the source.

In August, the tribunal released its first indictment in which it accused four Hizbullah members of being involved in Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra are wanted for the February 2005 suicide car bomb attack in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber.

Ayyash has been named in the indictment as coordinator of the assassination team.

Ayyash and Badreddine face five charges including that of "committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device" and homicide, while Oneissi and Sabra faced charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.