False Witnesses Debate Revived
The controversial false witnesses issue in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination emerged to the surface again after PM Najib Miqati announced paying Lebanon’s dues to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
“It’s still too early to decide on the issue,” Miqati’s visitors told An Nahar newspaper on Monday.
They told the daily that the PM has his hands tied as long as Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi hasn’t yet prepared a report concerning the issue to present it to the cabinet for discussion.
However, the dispute between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun on the name of the figure that will be appointed as the president of the Higher Judicial Council is delaying the matter, As Safir newspaper reported on Monday.
Berri said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper that the cabinet will not be able to evade the issue “especially after the tribunal confirmed that the Lebanese judiciary can prosecute false witnesses.”
Asked if the investigations will lead to high-ranking judiciary and security figures, he said: “Those who misled the investigations (in Hariri’s case)… must be prosecuted.”
However, Berri stressed that the cabinet should swiftly appoint the HJC president to pursue the issue.
The tribunal confirmed Friday that any testimonies given to the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission before the STL existed is not under its jurisdiction.
The STL said that those who gave misleading testimony to UNIIIC, which is a crime under Lebanese law, it might be possible for Lebanese judiciary to prosecute them.
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Miqati on Thursday to put the false witnesses issue on the cabinet agenda and later refer it to the HJC.
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