BEIRUT, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Lebanon's prime minister
said on Monday he expected a new indictment to be issued this
month by the international tribunal investigating political
attacks in the country, including the killing of statesman Rafik
al-Hariri.
Daniel Bellemare, prosecutor at the U.N.-backed tribunal
investigating Hariri's assassination on Feb. 14, 2005, has
issued an indictment against four fugitive Hezbollah suspects.
He is due to step down as prosecutor at the end of February.
"The general prosecutor Bellemare told me during his final
visit to Lebanon that before he leaves he will issue a kind of
update to the indictments," Najib Mikati told Lebanon's LBC
television in an interview.
The powerful Shi'ite guerrilla movement Hezbollah has denied
any role in the attack and says the suspects will never be
handed over to the court which it says is politically motivated.
The tribunal said two weeks ago the suspects would be tried
in absentia.
The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating
Hariri's killing has also announced it would look into three
other attacks. A source close to the tribunal said the court
would likely issue an indictment by the end of February.
"Yes, we are awaiting some kind of update to the
indictments, which will have something to do with the ministers
Elias al-Murr and Marwan Hamadeh and (politician) George Hawi,"
Mikati said.
In August, the STL said it would pursue investigations into
three bomb attacks it believes are connected to the blast that
killed Hariri in 2005. It ordered Lebanese authorities to hand
over information about the attacks and assassinations attempts
on Hamadeh, Murr and Hawi.
Hamadeh is a former telecoms minister who survived an
assassination attempt in 2004. Murr, a former deputy prime
minister and defence minister, was wounded in a 2005 bombing.
Hawi was killed in Beirut by a bomb in his car in 2005. The
former Communist Party chief was a critic of neighbouring Syria,
which maintained a 29-year military presence in Lebanon and is
still accused by opponents of meddling in the country.
(Reporting by Erika Solomon Editing by Maria Golovnina)
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