BEIRUT – March 14 officials on Monday called for justice to be delivered for the assassination of the pro-Western alliance’s figures, days before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafiq Hariri is set to start its trial in the case.
“It is the time of justice, and society will know who planned [Rafiq al-Hariri’s] assassination and why,” Future Movement MP Jamal al-Jarrah said in a speech delivered in the “Era of Justice” ceremony hosted by the Lebanese Forces in Maarab.
“It is no longer possible for you to assassinate and murder without consequences or punishment,” he said in an implicit reference to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah, which March 14 has blamed for the assassinations of their comrades.
Jarrah then addressed the March 8 alliance, saying: “The sword of justice is stronger than your injustice, oppression and arrogance. Justice is coming and the [Special Tribunal for Lebanon] is beginning its work [trial].”
Meanwhile, former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, an LF member, said, “We are expecting a truth that imposes itself and cannot be questioned or debated or leaked from the STL.”
“We tell the judges and investigators [of the STL] that Lebanon is [expecting] a lot from you. They owe it to Lebanon and the victims.”
March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soueid, in turn, said that March 14 was “asking for the justice that will clear the way for forgiveness and reconciliation.”
“There is no forgiveness or reconciliation without implementing justice.”
The STL is set to start its blockbuster trial of four Hezbollah members indicted in for Hariri’s assassination in a February 2005 car bombing that killed 21 others.
In June 2011 the UN-backed court charged four Hezbollah members—Mustafa Badreddine, 52, Salim Ayyash, 49, Hussein Anaissi, 39, and Assad Sabra, 36—for Hariri’s murder.
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/special-tribunal-for-lebanon/530130-march-14-officials-call-for-justice-ahead-of-stl-trial
