Hariri on Gemayel’s Murder Anniversary: STL Working on Ending Organized Political Crime

Former Premier Saad Hariri stressed on the occasion of ex-Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel’s assassination on Sunday that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will achieve justice and end the era of organized crime.

The anniversary “is an occasion to stress to the martyr, Pierre Amin Gemayel, that the international tribunal continues its work to hold the killers accountable, achieve justice and end the epoch of organized political crime at a time when the region’s people are on the path of ending the era of killing, tyranny and terrorism,” Hariri said in a statement.

The Mustaqbal movement leader said that Gemayel’s murder five years ago was an attempt to target Lebanon’s independence movement given his essential role in defending the freedom of the Lebanese and their independent decision-making.

Hariri described Gemayel as a “brother” and a “partner,” saying he became an “intersection point with a series of hopes that they shared for the sake of drafting a new future for Lebanon.”

He said several March 14 officials fell victim for the same cause although “the tools of murder haven’t so far been able to extinguish its flames.”

Hariri stressed that the Lebanese are betting on the young generation “to confront the project of armed dominance” that seeks to hinder the national decision-making and to salvage Lebanon from efforts to target its democratic identity.