Lebanon fails to relinquish defendants

Two days prior to the end of the legal deadline, which is a month long, given to Lebanon’s Attorney General Judge Said Mirza to respond to the request of the Prosecutor of the International Tribunal, Judge Daniel Bellemare, in regards to relinquishing the four wanted Hezbollah officials accused of the assassination of former President Rafik Hariri and his companions; Bellemare said that "none of the four defendants were found,” while Mirza confirmed that he responded to the Tribunal’s request. Former Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar told "Arabs Today" that Mirza responded to the Tribunal by putting the blame on whoever provided protection to the four wanted men. He saw in Mirza’s brief statement that it "recognizes in advance that Lebanon which is represented by a judicial take over could not relinquish the wanted men to the Tribunal, which proves Lebanon’s inability to accomplish the mission.” On his expectations of what there is to come, Najjar, said that “the Tribunal will likely issue arrest warrants against the four accused men because the court will begin trials next October.” He also presumed that the Tribunal will issue a series of indictments in addition to the additional documents which strongly condemn the four defendants with official and documented facts. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has confirmed in a  statement on Tuesday afternoon that the Lebanese authorities submitted to it a report on the procedures taken for searching for the suspects of the 14th of February 2005 assassination and their arrests." He added that the Attorney General of the Tribunal gave a report on this day, stating in it that none of the four defendants were arrested so far. Accordingly, the President of the Special Tribunal Judge Antonio Cassese will study the report carefully and take the next step in a timely manner. As for Lebanon's commitment to arrest and detain suspects and transfer them, according to the 1757 resolution  of the Security Council to the United Nations, it is still ongoing.