Hezbollah leader Nasrallah rejects Hariri indictments

BBC News, 2 July 2011

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has rejected indictments of four of its members over the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former PM Rafiq Hariri.

Nasrallah described The Hague-
based tribunal as biased

He also said no power would be able to arrest the "honourable brothers", whose identity has not been made public.

It was Nasrallah's first reaction to the indictments issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday.

The Shia militant group has repeatedly denounced the UN-backed tribunal and vowed to retaliate.

Rafik Hariri and 22 others were killed in February 2005 in central Beirut when a huge bomb went off as his motorcade passed by.

'Israeli plot'

In a televised speech on Saturday, Nasrallah rejected "each and every void accusation" made by the STL, saying it was tantamount to an attack on the group.

Rafik Hariri is widely credited with getting Lebanon
back on its feet after the 15-year civil war

He said the four group members were brothers "who have an honourable history in resisting Israeli occupation".

Nasrallah went on by describing The Hague-based tribunal as biased and part of an Israeli plot.

On Thursday, Lebanon's state prosecutor Saeed Mirza said he had received the indictments and four arrest warrants from an STL delegation in Beirut.

The STL later confirmed the indictments, stating that the judge "is satisfied that there is prima facie evidence for this case to proceed to trial".

It added that it would not reveal the identities of those named in the indictment.

Hariri's son, Saad, welcomed the indictments and described them as a "historic moment" for Lebanon.