Lebanon prosecutor slams Canadian report on Hariri

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)

Says CBC report could jeopardize lives in Lebanon

The U.N.-backed Lebanon tribunal prosecutor criticized early Wednesday a Canadian media
report linking Shiite armed group Hezbollah to the killing of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said reports by Canadian public broadcaster CBC News could jeopardize lives and affect the investigation into Hariri’s assassination in 2005, and Bellemare’s office refused to comment on their accuracy. CBC News reported on Sunday that U.N.-backed investigators had found that Hezbollah members were behind Hariri’s assassination in 2005, citing inquiry sources and documents.

“The most serious impact of the CBC reports is that their broadcast may put people’s lives in jeopardy,” Bellemare said in an emailed statement.

“The Office of the Prosecutor is working flat out to ensure that a draft indictment is submitted to the pre-trial Judge for confirmation in the near future,” the Office said in the statement. “The Office of the Prosecutor’s decision not to comment on matters relating to the investigation will not change.”

Hariri’s assassination plunged Lebanon into its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war. Sunni-Shiite tensions threatened to boil over into a civil war.

Hezbollah, which is part of a unity government led by Hariri’s son Saad, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing. Its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said this month he will not allow the arrest of any of the group’s members.

Hezbollah and Western diplomats say that an expected indictment against members of the group could come late this year or early next. Lebanese politicians fear a crisis, and possible relapse into violence, if that proves to be the case.

CBC News said evidence gathered by Lebanese police and later by U.N.-backed investigators “points overwhelmingly to the fact that the assassins were from Hezbollah.” It said it had obtained mobile telephone and other telecommunications evidence which is at the core of the case.

Hezbollah, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, has accused the tribunal of being an Israeli tool and said its investigators are sending information to Israel.