STL Describes Dahiyeh Incident as 'Deplorable Attempt to Obstruct Justice'

The attack this morning in Beirut against staff members of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is a deplorable attempt to obstruct justice, STL's press office said in a communiqué on Wednesday.

"Those who carried out this attack must know that violence will not deter the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, a court of law, from fulfilling its mandate," added the communiqué.

"The President of the Tribunal, Judge Antonio Cassese, the Head of the Defense Office, Mr. Francois Roux and the Acting Registrar, Mr. Herman Von Hebel condemn violence in the strongest of terms."

STL's press office noted that Cassese "will report this regrettable incident to the Government of Lebanon and to the U.N. Secretary-General."

Earlier Wednesday, a group of angry women charged at U.N. investigators at a Dahiyeh gynecology clinic and snatched a briefcase containing documents from them.

Doctor Iman Sharara, who runs the private obstetrics and gynecology clinic, told reporters a team of two male investigators, their female translator and a plain clothes security officer arrived at her practice mid-morning on a scheduled appointment.

"They asked me for the phone numbers of between 14 and 17 people who visited my practice since 2003 and I told them it would take me some time to review my files," she said at her clinic in the Hizbullah-controlled southern suburb of Beirut.(Naharnet-AFP)