Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah forcefully criticised the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon last week, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the institution, writes Omayma Abdel-Latif in Beirut As controversy continues over the role of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), set up to investigate the circumstances behind the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri in 2005, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah told a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut last Thursday that the movement mistrusted the tribunal and might have difficulty respecting its findings. "Unless the tribunal's findings are based on solid evidence, we will not be able to accept its decisions," Nasrallah said, adding that at the moment "it does not seem to me that the tribunal is basing its decisions on solid evidence." Rumours doing the rounds of the Lebanese capital had already indicated that Nasrallah would be making an important announcement regarding the Resistance Movement's views on the work of the STL, and in the event he did not disappoint. The STL investigation was ignoring the hypothesis that Israel could have been behind Al-Hariri's assassination, Nasrallah said, meaning that the investigation was biased from the start. "Israel had the motive, the capabilities, and the interest to kill Al-Hariri, but the International Tribunal is not looking into this hypothesis. As long as it does not take this hypothesis into consideration, the tribunal will not be unprejudiced," he said. Moreover, Nasrallah said, while Israel had been effectively ruled out as the culprit from the start, fingers were now beginning to be pointed at the Resistance Movement, or at least at some of its "undisciplined members". Nasrallah said that during a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri before the latter's recent trip to Washington, he had been informed that the STL was expected to direct charges against what Al-Hariri had described as "undisciplined members of Hizbullah," alleging their involvement in the assassination. Nasrallah accused the STL of having decided to indict Hizbullah for the killing even before the investigation had been concluded. "The indictment was written into the investigation's terms of reference from the start, even before members of Hizbullah were called as witnesses," Nasrallah said. "Before leaving for Washington, Al-Hariri told me that an indictment would be issued implicating 'undisciplined members of Hizbullah.'" The move was part of an attempt to target the Resistance Movement and to discredit it in Lebanon and the region as a whole, he said. However, Hizbullah had nothing to fear from the STL's actions, since previous "conspiracies" had failed. "Let them issue their indictments at once and be finished with it," he said. "They ought to be concerned for themselves, because other such schemes to discredit Hizbullah have failed. We are not afraid. We are not worried. We know how to defend ourselves." Rafik Al-Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February 2005. While his assassination has been widely blamed on Syria, the Syrians have denied any involvement. STL President Antonio Cassese said earlier this year that he expects to be in a position to issue indictments in the case later this year. Despite Nasrallah's strong words at last week's press conference, he did leave room for negotiation by calling on Saudi Arabia to mediate in order to stop "the meddling in Lebanon". Yet, he also specifically targeted Saad Al-Hariri by saying that the latter could "take a position" on the investigation. "I have always told him to follow the STL's activities and to be aware of the possible results. We are both in tough positions," Nasrallah said. Nasrallah reiterated his criticisms of the STL during an event in honour of Hizbullah martyrs at the Shahed Institute in Beirut's southern suburbs at the weekend, when he called for the establishment of a committee to investigate allegations of false statements made to the STL in its investigations. "They should set up a special committee, parliamentary, judicial, security, or ministerial, to subpoena witnesses and ask them who provided their information," Nasrallah said. "If they really want to be serious about investigating this assassination, this is where things should start. However, from day one the investigation has worked on a single assumption, and from here it has fabricated accusations, come out with a ruling, and then gone ahead to seek evidence in support of its assumptions." A transparent investigation could still achieve results, he said. But "can an investigating commission made up of Americans and the British government, with investigating officers brought in from intelligence services closely linked to the Israeli Mossad, be entrusted with an issue of this importance?" "Isn't it our right to demand that false witnesses, who have misled the investigation for years, be held accountable, or at least expelled rather than protected?" "We will not allow such allegations to be made at the expense of the resistance. We shall preserve the Resistance and carry on the path of resistance," Nasrallah said. Hizbullah wanted to see justice done in the Al-Hariri case, but it had the right to protect itself from false allegations. "If the truth is not found, there will be no justice. We demand justice, justice to punish Al-Hariri's killers. Anything else would be unjust. Yet we find ourselves being falsely accused." In an indirect response to Nasrallah's remarks, Saad Al-Hariri presented his view of the investigation during the opening of the conference of the Al-Mustaqbal Movement, his own political bloc, held in Beirut last weekend. Al-Hariri said there were groups that either feared or hoped that the results of the investigation would spark a new civil war in Lebanon. "We have no room for such fears, and we do not base our position on media leaks," Al-Hariri said. "Achieving justice is not open to compromise." Saad Al-Hariri said that Rafik Al-Hariri's assassination could not "be the reason to restart strife in Lebanon. The intimidation has to stop. Israel will not be able to overcome Lebanon as long as the Lebanese know how to maintain national unity. The state is charged with meeting the challenges of an Israeli assault, and Lebanese society is responsible for defending the nation," Al-Hariri said. Al-Hariri's words were designed to reassure the country that any indictments of members of Hizbullah by the STL would not lead to a return of sectarian violence between Al-Hariri's Sunni supporters and the mostly Shiite supporters of Hizbullah. However, Al-Hariri's comments also came following a meeting with his parliamentary bloc on Friday, in which he denied that he had informed Nasrallah that the STL was likely to indict members of Hizbullah. An army of Al-Hariri supporters denied any suggestion that Al-Hariri knew when the indictments would be issued or what their content would be. The STL's work "is an issue of a national and ethical commitment to protect the work of justice, which we are tackling in a spirit of responsibility to prevent strife from destabilising domestic unity," Al-Hariri concluded.
