BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah yesterday rejected charges in a German magazine that it was behind the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and said the “fabrications” were made to try to influence next month’s general election.
A suicide truck bomber killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. A UN investigation into the assassination first implicated Syrian and Lebanese officers but it later held back from giving any details on its findings.
A UN Special Court for Lebanon began its work in March and one of its first actions was to order the Lebanese authorities to release four pro-Syrian generals who had been held in connection with the case after saying it had no evidence against them.
“The special UN tribunal investigating the murder of former Prime Minister Hariri has come up with surprising new conclusions, and is keeping them secret,” the magazine wrote in an article at the weekend. “According to information Der Spiegel has obtained, investigators believe that Hezbollah was behind the murder.”
Hezbollah said the timing of the report was aimed at influencing Lebanon’s June 7 general election and at covering up the arrest in recent months of more than two dozen Lebanese on suspicion of spying for Israel.
“These are nothing but fabrications made in the same dark room that for four years fabricated similar stories regarding the (involvement of) Syrians and the four officers,” Hezbollah said in a statement in Beirut.
“Publishing these accusations and attributing them to sources close to the international court dents the credibility of the tribunal and its work and requires firm and clear action toward the publishers of these evil fabrications,” it added.
