BICOM

Four members of the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation have been indicted for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005. A delegation from the UN Special Tribunal on Lebanon presented the indictments yesterday to Lebanese Attorney-General Said Mirza. The four have been named as Moustafa Badr-al-din, Hassan Issa, Assad Sabra and Salim Ayyash. Moustafaa Badr-al-din is the brother in law of key Hezbollah military leader Imad Moughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in February 2008. Saad Hariri, former-prime minister and the son of the murdered man, described the issuing of the indictments as a ‘historic moment’ and a ‘victory for Lebanon, international justice and the souls of the fallen.’ Hezbollah, meanwhile, described the Tribunal as ‘politicised.’ The movement has in the past referred to the Tribunal as a ‘US-Zionist plan.’

The Lebanese authorities now have 30 days to arrest the suspects. If they do not do so, after 30 days the Tribunal will make the details of the indictments public. The issuing of the indictments creates a difficult dilemma for the new government in Lebanon, which is dominated by Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian factions.