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Hezbollah calls on Lebanese to boycott Hariri court

BEIRUT - Hezbollah urged all Lebanese on Thursday to boycott a UN-backed inquiry into the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri and accused investigators of sending information to Israel.

By Reuters

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Published: Fri 29 Oct 2010, 9:40 AM

Last updated: Sun 16 Feb 2020, 10:12 PM

Tension has escalated in Lebanon over the tribunal in the past few months and the country almost sank into new turmoil after reports that the court’s prosecutor will indict members of the Hezbollah, possibly early next year.
“I call on every Lebanese official and every citizen to boycott these investigators and not to cooperate with them,” Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech via a video link.
“All the information and data and addresses (they get) is sent to Israel,” Nasrallah said.
Nasrallah’s remarks came a day after two international investigators were forced from a gynaecologist’s clinic in southern Beirut, Hezbollah’s stronghold, where they had arranged to review files.
The tribunal condemned what it called “an attack on its staff” and said it would not be deterred from its investigation.
Nasrallah said the tribunal’s attempt to access the women’s files was “a scandalous development”.
His group, part of Lebanon’s national unity government, has denounced the UN-backed court as a tool of US and Israeli policy and called on Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, Rafik’s son, to repudiate the tribunal which he has so far championed.
Nasrallah’s remarks are likely to be seen as an attempt to put pressure on Saad Hariri to distance himself from the tribunal and could prompt criticism from Hariri’s supporters, widening even further the split between the two camps.
Nasrallah said the clinic which the investigators went to on Wednesday was frequented by women linked to the group.
“Why would the investigation require the medical files of our women, sisters and daughters? Everybody in this region knows that this can not be tolerated...(on a) religious, social and ethical level...this is a scandalous development,” he said.
Nasrallah said that the investigators have been collecting data from all sectors in the country including information on electricity subscribers, telephone (networks) and university students dating back to 2003.
He said they also requested the fingerprints of 893 people from the general security directorate. “There is not any sector in the country which they did not go to,” he said.
 
 

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