By Wassim Mroueh
BEIRUT: A Hezbollah MP said Thursday that the international investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had an office in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a party stronghold.

“Some forget that Hezbollah cooperated with the international investigation committee and the international tribunal. The committee also visited our offices and houses … and the investigation committee has an office in Beirut’s southern suburbs,” Tyre MP Nawwaf Musawi said at Parliament during the final session to discuss the policy statement of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet.

“Many people, some in their 80s and 90s, who were summoned by the international investigation, went to the [the committee’s headquarters] at Monte Verde,” Musawi added, offering to accompany anyone wishing to visit the office Friday.

The Hezbollah lawmaker also slammed Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, the head of the Internal Security Forces Information Branch, who he said was responsible for leaking the names of the Hezbollah members indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon before the indictment had reached state prosecutor Saeed Mirza.

Hezbollah has rejected the indictment and called the STL, which was established by the U.N. to investigate the assassination of Rafik Hariri and other politicians, an “Israeli project” targeting the resistance.
Earlier in the session, Hezbollah came under a scathing verbal attack by Metn MP Sami Gemayel, a Kataeb (Phalange) Party official.

“A Hezbollah member can kill an army officer and spend nine months in prison, while someone else who committed the same crime would spend his life in prison … Hezbollah has the right to wage war … Hezbollah has the right to have a private telecoms network,” Gemayel said.

“There is discrimination among the Lebanese. While some do as they please, the others cannot,” he added.
Touching on the STL, Gemayel said that it was the only means to arrive at the truth, stressing that the Kataeb didn’t target innocent people.

“Know that that we will not participate in deception or indict innocent people … this is not what we are looking for. We want to indict those who carried out the assassinations,” Gemayel said.
The lawmaker urged Hezbollah to take part in uncovering the truth.
At the same time, Gemayel wondered how a Hezbollah-dominated Cabinet could hand over indicted Hezbollah members.

“What is asked today from a Hezbollah-dominant Cabinet is that it hand over Hezbollah members to a tribunal disavowed by Hezbollah,” Gemayel said.
Gemayel noted that the Cabinet was not fulfilling its responsibilities and accused it of bypassing justice for the sake of stability.

He also said that the March 8 alliance attempted to politicize the STL when Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah presented footage last year of Israeli espionage activities from 1997.
Gemayel accused Nasrallah of using misleading quotes from a speech given by STL President Antonio Cassese.
“They are trying to harm the image of the tribunal,” the Metn MP said.

Gemayel’s remarks prompted Baabda MP Ali Ammar to interrupt, but the Hezbollah official was stopped by Speaker Nabih Berri, who allowed him to respond after Gemayel had finished his address.
For his part, Batroun MP Butros Harb outlined the reasons behind his opposition to Mikati’s Cabinet.
These were “black practices” which accompanied its formation, infringing on the prerogatives of the president and the prime minister during the formation process, the government’s inclusion of “corrupt” members, and the content of its policy statement.

Harb said that he decided to withhold confidence from the Cabinet because the March 8 coalition had “imposed on the Cabinet its negative view regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and accordingly, announced its rejection of uncovering the truth in assassination crimes and serving justice.”

In its policy statement, the government stresses Lebanon’s respect for U.N. resolutions and pledges to follow the tribunal’s path in order to reach the truth in Hariri’s assassination.
“The Cabinet’s policy statement represents a practical, clear and preemptive rejection of the international judiciary and a renunciation of uncovering truth,” he added.

All we asked of you was to announce that the Cabinet is committed to cooperating with the tribunal but you refused … We asked you to grant us one third of [veto power] just like you did when you were a minority in our previous government,” Harb said, “and you refused.”

Harb criticized the policy statement for not including the term “respect for Lebanon’s independence” when touching on Lebanese-Syrian relations, adding that the new majority was not concerned with such independence.
Harb also tackled Berri’s surrender of a Shiite Cabinet post to his Sunni ally Faisal Karami, saying it violated articles 24 and 95 of the Constitution which call for an equal division of parliamentary seats among Muslims and Christians and a fair distribution of Cabinet posts.
“Today this might be a custom, tomorrow it might be at the expense of another party, threatening Lebanon’s coexistence,” he said.

Despite the tense atmosphere in the General Assembly, light-hearted moments found their way to the session, which stretched on for more than four hours and saw the approval of Mikati’s Cabinet through a vote of confidence.
In her speech, Sidon MP Bahia Hariri called on the “wealthy people of Lebanon” to educate 100,000 Lebanese young people at their expense in universities abroad.

“[Former] Prime Minister [Fouad] Siniora will [cover the expenses] of 10,000 students,” she told Berri, who jokingly doubted the contribution would take place.
“God forbid; I believe everything except this,” said the speaker. Siniora served as a finance minister in the cabinets of the late Prime Minister Hariri.

Moments later, Mikati responded to Siniora, who said that the Cabinet’s clause on the STL resembled “a man who carries a pencil in his right hand and an eraser in his left hand, writes in the right hand and erases in the left hand.”
“I don’t have a pencil but a pen,” Mikati said, pulling a pen from his shirt pocket. “You have a pencil,” he said, addressing Siniora.

Speaking to The Daily Star while leaving Parliament, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt boasted of the Cabinet’s success in winning the vote of confidence: “We were given a vote of confidence despite the doubts they had; we will answer every point [they raise], and we are not afraid.”

STL DENIES IT HAD OFFICE in southern suburbs
By Patrick Galey

BEIRUT: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon denied Thursday suggestions made by a Hezbollah MP that the court had maintained an office in south Beirut.
During a session in Parliament to discuss the government’s policy statement, Tyre MP Nawwaf Musawi said the staff from the STL and the initial U.N.-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had maintained an office in the southern suburbs of Beirut at the same time as running operations from their base in the mountains above the capital.

“The STL does not have an office in south Beirut,” a court spokesperson told The Daily Star.
It also emerged Thursday that STL pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen ruled that a former general, imprisoned in connection to Hariri’s killing for four years, was eligible to view additional court documents relating to the circumstances of his detention.

Pro-Syrian general Jamil Sayyed was one of four men only released when the STL started operations in early 2009. He alleged that his detention was politically motivated and legally baseless. A complex legal procedure began several months ago in which Sayyed’s lawyers requested STL documents relating to the client. Although additional documents were deemed acceptable for release by Fransen, one document, “No. 51,” was blocked by STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, a decision Sayyed has appealed.