Hezbollah Chief Says Hariri Court Has Ties with Western Intelligence Agencies

2011-07-03

The leader of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah on Saturday described as "unjust" accusations traded against four members of his party of involvement in the assassination on Lebanese Sunni former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, adding that a prominent CIA agent was part of the team of investigators looking into the 2005 killing.

In his first reaction to the indictment, Hassan Nasrallah said the accusations will not stir Sunni-Shiite tension or another civil war in Lebanon.

"I tell the Lebanese...there is nothing to worry about," he said in a televised speech.

Nasrallah said it would be impossible to arrest the alleged suspects, "not in 30 days nor in 30 years."

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which is probing the Hariri assassination, submitted to the Lebanese authorities this week a sealed indictment. Judicial leaks said the indictment named four Hezbollah members, confirming earlier reports that the U.N.- backed court was bracing to point the finger at members of the powerful Lebanese group.

"This court is politicized and serves a specific purpose, which is to deal a blow to resistance movements against Israel," said the Hezbollah secretary general, reiterating that the STL was an American-Israeli project.

"We are not concerned with this court or anything that comes out from it," said Nasrallah, "We will not allow this court to drag Lebanon into civil strife."

Nasrallah revealed that one of the advisers to STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare was a top CIA agent that was tasked with tracking Hezbollah's slain top military commander Imad Mughniyeh.

Nasrallah also described investigators looking into the Hariri assassination and some of the STL staff as "biased and corrupted."

Nasrallah also showed footage of Gerhard Lehmann, top investigator in the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) to inspect the Hariri assassination, receiving a sum of money for information on the investigation he divulged.

The black-turbaned cleric questioned the reason why the UNIIIC shipped 97 computers to The Hague from Israel rather than regular routes such as the Lebanese port and airport. He also showed a voucher issued from the Israeli Customs to that effect.

Source: CRIEnglish.
Link: http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/03/2724s646004.htm.