Naharnet

Charbel: If No Arrests Were Made, this Doesn’t Mean Lebanon Didn’t Cooperate with STL

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has reiterated that the cabinet was not entitled to act on the arrest warrants issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, saying however that Lebanese judicial authorities were cooperating with the court to find the suspects.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper published Monday, Charbel said: “The protocol signed between Lebanon and the international tribunal states that judicial police would carry out the necessary investigation to arrest the suspects.”

Politics has nothing to do with it, he said.

Charbel stressed that the general prosecutor was exerting all efforts to find the four suspects against whom arrest warrants were issued by the STL.

“If the (authorities) weren’t able to arrest the suspects, this doesn’t mean that (Lebanon) did not cooperate,” he told the daily.

Asked about the seven Estonian tourists who were abducted in the Bekaa valley in March, Charbel confirmed that Lebanese authorities were following up the case but with total secrecy.


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