Hizbullah to give data to UN tribunal

"Evidence" implicating Israel in Hariri assassination to be sent.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
311_Rafik Hariri (photo credit: Associated Press)
311_Rafik Hariri
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Hizbullah will provide the UN tribunal investigating the 2005 assaassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri with evidence it claims implicates Israel in the crime, a representative of the group said Friday, according to an AFP report.
Mohammed Fneish, a Hizbullah minister in Lebanon's government, said that his organization has no faith in the credibility of the UN tribunal, but that they will turn in their evidence in any event. Hizbullah has dismissed the tribunal for having ties to Israel.
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The Hizbullah announcement came in response to tribunal spokeswoman Fatima Issawi's Wednesday call for the submission  of all relevant evidence in the case.
"The office of the prosecutor has always invited and continues to invite anyone who has evidence relevant to the attack against former prime minister Rafik Hariri to bring it to its attention," Issawi told AFP.
On Monday, Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised speech in which he claimed that Israel secretly killed Hariri, implicating Hizbullah and Syria for involvement in the murder, in order to cause Syrian troops to leave Lebanon.
As proof of his theory, Nasrallah produced a tape of a man named Ahmed Nasrallah, who had been arrested in 1996 for allegedly spying for Israel. “I met someone who worked with Rafik Hariri and I told him that Hizbullah wants to kill him (Hariri),” the man was heard saying in the tape, referring to an apparent attempt to turn Hariri against Hizbullah.
The Hizbullah chief, according to Walla, said the alleged spy escaped to “occupied Palestine” and was still there, allegedly enlisting Lebanese to collaborate with Israel.
Nasrallah’s speech came amid growing expectations that the international tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination will hold Hizbullah culpable.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report