Beirut: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday rejected indictments issued by a UN-backed tribunal seeking the killers of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, saying they were an attack on his movement.
“We reject the baseless accusations and rulings and consider them an aggression against us,” Nasrallah said in a televised address. “We will not allow them to weaken us ... and we will not let them drag Lebanon towards strife or civil war.”
Nasrallah said authorities would not be able to arrest the four suspects named in the indictments, which were handed to Lebanon’s prosecutor on Thursday. Officials said they accused members of his armed Islamist political movement of involvement in Hariri’s killing.
Under the court proceedings, Lebanese authorities have 30 days to arrest suspects, but Nasrallah has warned in the past that the Shiite group will “cut the hand” of anyone who seeks to detain its members.
“They cannot find them or arrest them in 30 days or 60 days, or in a year, two years, 30 years or 300 years,” Nasrallah said.
The assassination of Hariri on February 14, 2005, plunged Lebanon into a series of political crises, killings and bombings which led to sectarian clashes in May 2008, dragging the country back to the brink of civil war.
The tribunal has not named the suspects publicly, but Lebanese officials said they included Mustafa Badreddine, a senior member of the movement and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Emad Moughniyeh.
