Fabricating False Witnesses…How was the STL Indictment Devised?

Nedal Hamadeh

On August 22, 2006, that is within less than ten days from the end of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, “Le Figaro’s” Georges Malbrunot, published an article titled "The Shadow of Hezbollah in the Assassination of Hariri." He mentioned certain information in which he referred to close Lebanese sources to Hariri’s family divulging the responsibility of members from Hezbollah in the assassination of PM Rafiq Hariri. Malbrunot's report was the starting point for launching the accusations lying ahead against Hezbollah after every possibility to accuse Syria was exhausted.
Malbrunot's report in the French paper "Le Figaro" was republished by the German magazine "Der Spiegel" after two and a half years of the first release; later it republished the same report many times which eventually turned out to be the precisely verbatim phraseology of the SITL indictment in this case.

Georges Malbrunot

At that time, and after my return from Beirut to Paris, I met Georges Malbrunot on the margin of a press conference at a foreign press club in Paris. On that day, Georges was occupying the second floor at the International Radio of France. He and I went into a discussion in which he uncovered the party that had phrased and fabricated the indictment, which was issued two days ago.
What Does "Georges Malburnot" say about this Issue?
When we met, I went through my observations on his reputable report in "Le Figaro" in relation to the timing of publishing his report synchronized with halting the military operations in Lebanon and Palestine, in addition to the pressure exercised on Hezbollah from the corner of discord especially that the diplomatic controversy was at its climax with regard to allowing new UNIFIL, mainly made of European forces including French, to be deployed in the South of Lebanon. I, also, said to him exactly that his report was neither innocent nor credible. The French right wing and the close-minded reporter to the neoconservatives of the U.S.A. responded abruptly. He jumped up to his feet protesting to my attributing untrustworthiness to his report and he said, "I assure you that those words were relayed by a Lebanese official close to Hariri; also, I can add that the French Intelligence are aware of the meeting between the source and I in Paris during the war." When I asked him about the identity of that source close to Hariri family, he refused to divulge the name, however, the French media, then, spoke of Lieutenant Colonel Wissam Al-Hasan, the Head of the Lebanese Intelligence, that he was the one who had provided Gergoes Malbrunot with the news.
Surprisingly, it was the same news which turned out to be but the same SITL indictment issued after 5 years from the date the same news was issued by "Le Figaro."
The article-indictment in "Le Figaro" did not give the result expected both because of the French involvement in Hariri court as a party and because of the personality of the reporter Malbrunot in "Le Figaro," as he was the one who addressed all his articles about Syria, but suddenly he changed his direction. This was the reason that made the French paper and the French reporter lose their credibility and, subsequently, the article was not given the expected stimulation, yet it was rather away for two and a half years from the scene till it was republished, but this time in the German magazine "Der Spiegel" in an attempt to redraw a map for dealing with the STL and for the way of media promotional methodology.
The change in the media mechanism with a consideration for the new need to focus on Hezbollah and its responsibility resulted from several external reasons which are namely French ones:
a. France having been exposed as a direct party in the case of Hariri case after the endeavors made by Jacques Chirac in the case and his reception the “king” false witness Mohammad Zuhair Al-Siddique, which dismisses France as a source of truth in the case.
b. The approval by Hezbollah then to allow French forces within the UNIFIL in the South of Lebanon made France review its burden of accusing Hezbollah even in the media context.
c. France's desire to have Germany in the front of the evolving events in this case, especially after the scandals of Judge Detlev Mehlis and his corruption, lies, and his false representations.
Malbrunot's speaking of the French Intelligence knowledge of this meeting between Wissam Al-Hasan and him, which took place at a Parisian restaurant according to what he told me himself clearly indicates that the intelligence involvement in this case and in charging members of Hezbollah have been the foundation, apart from the sorrowful songs about the faultless STL court, its judges, and the neutrality of the international law that never moves except upon the desires of the authoritative states and their intelligence; and the rest is to come yet…

Source: Al-Manar Website

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