Mirza Submits to STL Files of Hamade, Murr, Hawi Cases

State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza on Monday handed a Special Tribunal for Lebanon delegation a report he prepared about the cases of ex-defense minister Elias Murr, MP Marwan Hamade and former Lebanese Communist Party chief George Hawi, state-run National News Agency reported.

Mirza also handed the delegation a report he prepared about the efforts exerted by the Lebanese authorities to enforce the STL arrest warrants issued for four Hizbullah operatives accused of being involved in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

By submitting to the STL copies of the files relating to the cases of Hamade, Murr and Hawi, according to an order by STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen, the Lebanese judiciary cedes to the STL jurisdiction over these cases, NNA said.

On August 19 the STL announced that it had established jurisdiction over the three attacks relating to Hamade, Murr and Hawi.

Fransen also ordered that the Lebanese authorities provide the relevant files to STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.

According to the Tribunal’s Statute, a case is connected to the February 14, 2005 attack if it is of a “similar nature and gravity” and has a number of elements in common with it, such as “the criminal intent (motive), purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks (modus operandi) and the perpetrators.”

And according to Article 1 of the Statute, the Tribunal has jurisdiction over attacks that occurred in Lebanon between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005 but only if their connectedness to the Hariri attack is determined by the Pre-Trial Judge.