Bellemare Files Amended Indictment in Hariri Probe

Once again, and without prior notice, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon filed an amended indictment on Friday based on what he called to be further evidence in the probe into the 2005 killing of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.
[Quote me: the  "new elements unavailable until recently" is the failure of the conspiracy against Syria. Without Russia and China there would be no "humanitarian intervention", so they have nothing other than Daniel A. Bellemare] - UP

"The Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel A. Bellemare, today filed an amended indictment," his office said in a statement. The new amended indictment "replaces the indictment of 11 March 2011, to include substantive new elements unavailable until recently," it said.

The Prosecutor does not intend to make further amendments to the indictment, unless ordered to do so by the Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen, the statement added. Other indictments could, however, be filed in the future if warranted by the evidence, it said.

The amendment of an indictment or the filing of new indictments is and will continue to be guided solely by the evidence uncovered by the ongoing investigation, the statement read.

The original Indictment was filed on January 17, 2011, in connection with the attack on former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and others on 14 February 2005.

The press office statement concluded that the indictment and the accompanying evidence remain confidential and any disclosure of its contents might amount to contempt.

Meanwhile, the head of the caretaker government in Lebanon Saad Hariri claimed on Friday that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was established not only to achieve justice but also to prevent a repeat of the heinous crimes that have plagued Lebanon since 2004.

In a statement he released on the occasion of Lebanon’s Martyrs Day, Hariri said the STL was not only set up to uncover the truth and achieve justice, but to prevent the recurrence of these heinous crimes in Lebanon in the future.

He paid tribute to the fallen members of the press in Lebanon, describing them as “the martyrs of the free word and Lebanese journalism,” adding that they had “paid with their lives for liberty and free expression.”

Hariri hoped Lebanon would continue to be a “platform for democracy and freedom and the pioneer of the free press in the Arab world.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian