4 indicted in killing of ex-Lebanese leader

Case could put pressure on Hezbollah

July 01, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times

Rafik Hariri was killed when a huge explosion struck his motorcade in February… (JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images )

BEIRUT - A UN-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister delivered indictments to prosecutors yesterday, naming four men, including two suspected members of Hezbollah, in a six-year-old case that redrew the country’s politics and unleashed years of discord.

The naming of members of Hezbollah, the Shi’ite Muslim movement that is the most powerful actor here, was expected for months. But the indictments marked the beginning of a judicial process that could bring unprecedented pressure on the group and its ally Syria, which faces growing isolation because of its crackdown on a nearly four-month uprising.

Although the statements of Lebanese leaders were restrained, details of the indictment could also prove inflammatory in a country still deeply divided between Hezbollah and its allies, on the one hand, and a disparate gathering of its critics and foes. Only the names were leaked; the details of the indictment, so far, remain secret.

“It’s the beginning of something big, not small,’’ said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. But, he added: “Names without a story doesn’t have much impact. If the public comes to see there’s massive evidence of a terrible story, that will have a big public impact by itself, but that hasn’t happened yet.’’

According to legal experts, Lebanon has 30 days to serve the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested in this period, the tribunal will make the indictments public and summon the suspects to appear before court.

The former leader, Rafik Hariri, was killed along with six bodyguards and five passersby when a huge explosion struck his motorcade on a bend on Beirut’s Mediterranean coast in February 2005.

The indictments were handed to the state prosecutor, whose duties include serving the arrest warrants. Neither members of the tribunal nor the prosecutor, Said Mirza, offered details of the indictments, but judiciary officials confirmed the names of the four men, two of them believed to be senior members in Hezbollah.

One of them is Moustapha Badreddine, a brother-in-law of Imad Moughnieh, a shadowy Hezbollah commander killed in 2007 and blamed for some of the group’s most spectacular acts of violence. Among those attacks was the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 service members.

A Lebanese television channel said its sources identified the other Hezbollah member as Salim Ayyash. The affiliations of the remaining two - Hassan Anaissy and Assad Sabra - were unknown.