A UNITED NATIONS tribunal has accused Hezbollah of a “deliberate attempt to obstruct justice” after the group called for a boycott of the UN investigation into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has urged all the Lebanese to end cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), saying that information gathered will be passed on to Israel.
A spokeswoman for The Hague-based tribunal said:
Any call to boycott the Tribunal is a deliberate attempt to obstruct justice. The STL will continue to rely on full cooperation by the Lebanese government and the support of the international community in fulfilling its mandate.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Hezbollah’s comments, saying that “such acts of interference and intimidation are unacceptable”, reports Associated Press.
Reports suggest that the STL is set to accuse members of Hezbollah of the murder of Hariri, who was killed with 22 other people in a bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005. The investigation poses the risk of a full-blown crisis in unstable Lebanon, with Hezbollah accusing the tribunal of being biased.
Nasrallah asked:
Why would the investigators go to a clinic that is frequented by the daughters, sisters and wives of Hezbollah leaders? How are our women’s medical files necessary to the investigation?
He added:
‘We have long known that every piece of information given to the tribunal was passed on to Western intelligence, but we were silent. Why were we silent? Solely to avoid being told we were obstructing the tribunal, out of respect for Hariri and his family and others.
But we now have reached a point where we can no longer keep silent for anyone’s sake.
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