By Patrick Galey 
BEIRUT: The U.N.-backed court probing the assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri has hit back at claims made by Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah that the tribunal favors Israel.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) President Antonio Cassese had been accused by Nasrallah of being a “dear friend of Israel,” something a court source denied Tuesday.

“Any suggestion that Cassese is biased in favor of Israel on any legal issue is simply based on wrong fact. [Nasrallah] is entitled to his opinion, but don’t start putting out lies in order to get across a point. It’s morally wrong and crosses a line,” a source at The Hague-based tribunal told The Daily Star.
“The frustration that I have in his speeches is that he really takes advantage of the fact that whatever he says will be believed by some without doing any investigations for themselves. He’s misusing his powers. He’s knowingly omitting information that discredits his point.”

Nasrallah, during his televised speech Saturday night, cited a speaker at a security conference in Herzliya, Israel, who lamented Cassese’s non-attendance, as proof that Cassese, as STL president, was biased toward Israel.
The source accused Nasrallah of failing to mention the fact that Cassese had declined to attend the conference “on principle.”
“It was quite clear that he’s trying to discredit Cassese in order to discredit the tribunal. If you are going to criticize a man, take it from his own words. Don’t be so selective, look at the other things [Cassese] has done. To me, it’s quite telling that [Cassese] boycotted [the Herzliya] conference,” the source added.

Cassese authored an article in October 2009, published by London’s Financial Times, in which the Italian judge praised the Goldstone Report, the U.N.-commissioned document that was critical of Israel’s actions during their 2009 “Cast Lead” assault on Gaza. He also once wrote, in conjunction with the Italian government, a report which advocated Palestinian autonomy over such areas such as security and management of public institutions.
The Italian judge, in a leaked internal memo to STL staff, seen last week by The Daily Star, lamented the court’s inability to respond to criticism, due to the confidential nature of its work.
The tribunal released its first indictment last week, which included the names of four Hezbollah members suspected of killing Hariri.

The five-time Prime Minister was assassinated in a car bomb attack on Feb. 14, 2005. The blast killed 22 others and prompted mass protests leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after three decades of military tutelage.
The court source added that Nasrallah had misrepresented Cassese’s stances on legal issues, particularly regarding Israel.
“If he’s going to comment about Cassese, he needs to look at the guy’s life and see what he’s done in the past decade,” the source added.