Hamadeh Testifies at STL over Syria Complicity
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard on Monday the testimony of Shouf MP Marwan Hamadeh in the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, at the start of evidence provided by Lebanese politicians and influential figures on Syria's alleged complicity in the killing.
Hamadeh said Hariri played a major role in the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Taef Accord in 1989. But the agreement “wasn't enforced because of political conflicts.”
“The government was to remain the sole security entity and was due to implement a new modern election law,” he told the court.
“Hariri tried many times to implement the different provisions of the agreement,” the MP said in response to a question by senior prosecution counsel Graham Cameron.
The Taef agreement allowed Syria to play a “supporting role” in Lebanon. But instead of seeing this role diminish, it (Damascus) became a “true tutelage,” said Hamadeh.
“Syrians participated in all decisions including the nomination of ordinary civil servants,” he added.
He also explained how Syria sought to impose its influence over Lebanon's political, financial, and economic sectors.
He said that Lebanese officials were hoping to eventually gain financial independence from Syria after the end of the Lebanese civil war, noting that ties with the country's regime deteriorated with the arrival of Syrian President Bashar Assad to power in 2000.
“We were hoping for openness towards democracy in Syria that would positively affect Lebanon, but this was not achieved,” he lamented.
The deterioration was marked with Syria's growing influence in Lebanon.
Hamadeh recounted how in April 2003 Hariri had received a message from the Syrian leadership, through head of Syrian head of intelligence in Lebanon Rustom Ghazali, ordering him to introduce a cabinet amendment overnight.
The MP said that the late premier was ordered to make the amendment overnight, adding that such short notice requests were normal.
“Hariri refused to resign following the amendment request, preferring instead to confront Syria's influence through parliamentary elections,” revealed Hamadeh.
Another sign of Syria's growing power in Lebanon was the closure of MTV in 2002 over “allegations that it was harming national unity.”
“Any voice that spoke out against Syria was considered to be harmful to national unity,” Hamadeh explained.
Hamadeh, who was the victim of an assassination attempt in Oct. 2004, is expected to testify for three to four days.
In addition to the lawmaker, other officials and journalists who were close to Hariri, will testify in court on the former PM's deteriorating ties with Syria, the neighboring country's increasing resolve to have more influence on Lebanon's internal affairs and growing concerns by the international community regarding the foreign political pressure exerted on Lebanon.
The STL, which is based in The Hague, will also hear the evolution of the opposition movement in Lebanon in Sept. 2004, of which Hariri was first silent and then went public. And finally Hariri's influence as a statesman.
His “deteriorating ties with Syria makes the evidence more explicable,” the Presiding Judge of the Trial Chamber, Judge David Re, said ahead of Hamadeh's testimony.
In the immediate aftermath of the former prime minister's assassination in a suicide truck bombing in Beirut, suspicion fell on Syria, since Hariri had been seeking to weaken its domination of Lebanon.
Syria has denied any role in the murder, but the killing galvanized opposition to Damascus and led to huge street demonstrations dubbed the "Cedar Revolution,” which forced the exit of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
Hamadeh had a leading role along with other politicians from the March 14 alliance in organizing the rallies.
The attack was initially blamed on pro-Syrian Lebanese generals. But the court in 2011 issued arrest warrants against Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra, all Hizbullah members.
A fifth suspect and also a Hizbullah member, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted in 2013 and his case was joined to the current trial this year.
The party has denied responsibility for the attack, and its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed the tribunal as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy.
"No Lebanese government will be able to make any arrests whether in 30 days, 30 years or even 300 years," he said in a defiant speech in 2011.
G.K.
H.K.
10 years
hamadeh's testimony will be a precious and balanced impartial input to this case!!
so trustworthy that it will surely be enough to overlook the fact that in 10 years the STL still hasn't managed to find a solid evidence of anything. who needs proof when we can have hamadeh's gossip? lol
10 years
This court should have a more suitable name.
Special Tribunal of Liars.
10 years
lol anonyme, you seem to have proof that even the STL doesnt claim to have. please contact them ASAP with your exclusive revelations!
10 years
This court sounds more and more, like anonytexas' garbage everyday. Delusions and conclusions, and no evidence, facts or proof.
10 years
anonyme: "No need to - there is nothing I said that didn't come from STL press releases."
i call bull and ask you to give us links to these "press releases". but i know you wont, as usual you just post propaganda, make empty claims and divert the topic when asked to back your claims.
10 years
yea i remember your usj study, it was hilarious and i didnt need to comment any further because you dis. you made a claim that 90% of intoxication cases were in dahieh, bekaa and south, and when i asked you to show where the 90% came from you posted a source that showed it was far less than 90%, that you had exaggerated the whole thing. it was a case in point, showing you blow fake stats when it suits you, and i didnt need to waste anymore of my time on that.
10 years
missing text in previous comment:
-yea i remember your usj study, it was hilarious and i didnt need to comment any further because you discredited yourself on your own*
10 years
as for your source, once again, you prove to be completely dishonest.
you claimed certain things, which are completely different from your source.
you said "the explosive composition which has been traced to its original manufacturer"
but your article says:
"Investigations were ongoing to trace the precise origin of the explosives and to establish possible forensic links with other cases."
you said: "To the pictures & videos of the Mitsubishi truck driven from Dahieh entrance of beirut."
but your article says:
"While it was known that the vehicle had been stolen in Japan before being shipped to the United Arab Emirates and then transported to northern Lebanon in December 2004, the Commission was currently working on new information regarding the sale of the van to individuals who could be involved in its final preparation for the attack."
10 years
as for your last link, the naharnet article, there is nothing that backs or is related to your previous claims. you're such a waste of time dude, you always do the same thing and i'm still wondering if you do this out of pure dishonesty or out of utter idiocy.
10 years
"At least I base my arguments on solid basis. "
oh really now?? distorting figures and exaggerating them is what you call "solid basis"? ROFL
10 years
Here we have Mr. Panzy farce texas, writing about farces.
It was you a few days ago, whom felt death threatened on Naharnet, by some other commentator.
More pathetic statements like that, cannot be made.
10 years
Who said I was whining texasusa? I am clearly quoting your own words, a few days ago. It was something like, "Hezbollah Cyperwarfare is going to kill me" or some other garbage like that. You are still alive aren't you? So can you stop accusing others to of being pansy's, when you are one of the worst ones, we have in here?
10 years
anonyme did you even read my answer? your claims are nowhere to be found in the stl press release. when the press release says they are trying to figure out something, you claim to already have the answers. and of course those answers serve your biased views. ridiculous.
10 years
Catch nasrallah and throw him in jail for undermining the Lebanese state. Once he orders the list of names to surrender then release the theif of government properties and manholes that he uses to run his Iranian telecom network.
10 years
What are you talking about FT, nothing is happening in Syria Mr the presifent Assad has triumphed years ago and he's loved by all Syrians, that's a fact!
10 years
Absolute LOVE. And translate this love to all syrians by: fill in the blank: again, and this Love to all syrians is translated by sending them ....... .... from the sky. He spraid them with ....... and lunched ..... into their villages.
10 years
While we have ISIL and Nusra on our doorstep, we still have STL CIA tribunal spending much needed funds, on garbage. Yet we have our "Lebanese" countrymen in the west, following these matters closely.
10 years
ISIL and Nusra on our doorstep
Mystic that's a lie Sayyed Hassan (SAWS) promised that if Hezballah goes to Syrian the terrorists will never come to Lebanon and we all know Sayyed Hassan(SAWS) never lies!
Signed President Michel Aoun ex-head of the party previously known as FPM now fully incorporated into Hezballah "the Islamic Resistance in the
Lebanon and everywhere else the Ayatollah want us to go".
10 years
Do you think that assassination of so many prominent figures in tn Lebanon is a matter that needs no justice?
10 years
It is an independant honest and competent court, unlike corrupted justice to which you are used with your good friends.
10 years
how do you know it is "independant honest and competent"? because the UN pawns said so?
10 years
murderers need to hire people like you to fight their battles in public forums with lies because they don't stand a chance at fighting their battles in a court of law where silly things like the truth comes into play.
10 years
You will all explode in hatred....like your boss the traitor
10 years
well said southern for your comment that's been downloaded to you to paste on every STL article.
10 years
Southern - Do you not see that you are full of delusions and lies? Be honest and admit that, like most people here, you suspect that the Hezb killed Hariri. Reality is you care more for Hezb than you do about the truth.
10 years
"this fake tribunal was set up with the aim to harm HA reputation"
Right, that's why the Tribunal was established in 2007 and took four years until it indicted the Hezbos.
And what about the evidence about the phone networks that traced back to a Hezbo hospital, did Eid really make it up?? And wasn't Eid killed afterwards??
And just answer this question: who killed Hariri? Israel?? KSA?? Wasn't the leader of the Syrian moukhabarat in Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, assassinated later that year?? Was it pure coincidence, or was it Nusra??
10 years
No matter what, where is your proof nickjames? It is pure conclusions you guys come up with.
10 years
anonytexas, you should be the judge in this tribunal, that is as "legitimate" as this is going to get.
10 years
Looooooool no matter what??? So in other words, "yeah Kanaan was killed because he knew who was behind the killing, but he's dead so you can't prove it" lmaoooooooooooo what a stance Mughniyeh.
10 years
If you're going to dismiss the STL as a conspiring body aimed at tarnishing hizbullah's reputation without any proof of such claims and based on gut feelings, you have to be willing to accept the even more solid conclusions based on circumstancial evidence, such as the Eid investigations and subsequent assassination, the ghazi canaan involvement and assassination and the fact that Hizballah and the Syrian regime are doing all they can to derail the investigations...
10 years
You will all explode in hatred....like your boss the traitor
10 years
Hizbullah is clean. They don't have cells killing people nor do they have cells in Peru, Argentina, Bulgaria, Thailand, Bahrein, Iraq, Yemen, etc. No. What's his name told us so.
10 years
I hope that the traitor emil lahoud also go down with his former master
10 years
save Lebanese time and money and let some countries who refused to give satellite pics and videos be obliged by this court so we now the truth quickely and cheaply
10 years
The Lebanese are foolish- first they allow the Syreians to manipulate them and now Iran is applying for the position
10 years
Can you explain why they were arrested to start with? 4 Generals arrested, jailed for 4 years then released ...yet you trivialize it as no biggie...
10 years
Roar, these four generals were held by the LAF for four years... just remember that
10 years
Flamethrower is the ONLY one something another!
10 years
The 4 Generals were released by the STL not put in Jail by it... idiot!
10 years
Don't waste your time taxes, every man and his dog know that HA carried out the assassination. You don't need to look for proof, HA implicated themselves by their reactions and responses to everything the STL threw at them. The very people against the STL, Mystic, Mowaten and Southern know full well that HA did it. The sad part about all this, is the fact that the STL will in due time reveal all the evidence they have gathered and these three dogs I just mentioned will change their tune and start to justify why HA killed Harriri, Flamethrower has already started down this path.
10 years
funny M8ers.... they soon forgot that aoun pointed his fingers at damascus before turning his coat....
10 years
Excellent, flamethrower. Thank you for confirming this. So, we can safely say that Aoun is now allied with a foreign president who he accuses of killing a Lebanese Prime Minister.
10 years
Hi Flamethrower :)
10 years
Portugal in 1990 the Army of Lebanon led by General Emile Lahoud and Syrian Arab Army joined forces to remove the renegade general Aoun and his militias from Baadba, of course he quickly ran away without telling his militias which led to many of them getting killed and some exicuted by the brave Syrian Arab Army.
@m14.fellathorr
do you know why I was repeatedly banned and rejected?>>>