Special Tribunal For Lebanon Issues Indictments For The Assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri
The United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon that investigates the murder of former Lebanon Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri announced on Monday that the prosecutor has issued indictments for those considered responsible for the crime that happened in 2005.
The names of those suspected were kept confidential for the time being but it is believed to include members of the Shia radical group Hezbollah.
The pre-trial judge is now determining whether to issue warrants for the arrest of those suspected of the assassination of Hariri.
The Hezbollah members of Lebanon cabinet resigned their offices last week and brought the government down in an attempt to put pressure on the Lebanese leadership to refuse the conclusions of the international tribunal.
The negotiations for the new government were postponed until next week, deepening the political crisis of the country.
The group denied any role in killing the former prime minister, and announced that since, in their opinion, the international tribunal was set by the United States and Israel, they did not recognized it.
They asked the government to refuse to cooperate with the international court and cut off its funds.
In a statement on its website, the international tribunal said that the names of those who have been indicted will be made public as soon as judge Daniel Fransen, the pre-trial judge, endorses the draft indictments and issues warrants for their arrest, which could take two to three months.
