JURIST - Paper Chase: Lebanon tribunal receives evidence from Hezbollah on ex-PM murder

[JURIST] Hezbollah [CFR backgrounders] officials on Tuesday submitted evidence to the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) [official website; JURIST news archive] linking Israel to the the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri [JURIST news archive]. The submission was in response to a request by the tribunal [JURIST report] last week for Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah [BBC profile] to turn over all information he possesses to the STL. The statement was issued by the tribunal after Nasrallah claimed to have proof that Israel was behind the assassination. Nasrallah said he would present concrete evidence proving that Israeli agents had sought to exploit divisions between Hariri's March 14 Alliance and the opposition March 8 Alliance, of which Hezbollah is a member.

In February, the head of the STL reassured [JURIST report] the Lebanese public that the investigation is on track. When asked about the progress of the investigation into the death of Hariri, the head of the STL "underlined the fact that the Tribunal already has in place all the legal and administrative instruments necessary for its work, and is fully operational so that justice may be dispensed with complete independence and impartiality in accordance with the highest international standards." The STL was established in 2005 at the request of the Lebanese government to try those alleged to be connected to the bombing in which Hariri was killed by explosions detonated near his motorcade in Beirut in February 2005.