The Hague Sources to Naharnet: Bellemare Has Not Yet Submitted a Draft Indictment to Fransen
The Hague sources have told Naharnet that Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Danielle Bellemare has not yet submitted a draft indictment to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen.
Moreover, Bellemare office sources stressed to Naharnet that when the prosecutor submits a draft indictment to Fransen, he would issue an official statement to announce that.
MTV reported Sunday evening that Bellemare had submitted the aforementioned draft to Fransen, "who has one month to scrutinize it before witnesses are called."
"It is expected that the court will start its work in mid-February, 2011," MTV added.
Meanwhile, in an article published Sunday in the French daily Le Figaro, journalist Georges Malbrunot quoted an STL source as saying that Bellemare "finalized drafting the indictment in the murder case of ex-PM Rafik Hariri and submitted it to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen."
The source noted that Fransen is supposed to take the decision of ordering the arrest of the accused after confirming the indictment, "the thing that would take between one-several weeks."
One expert says, according to Malbrunot's article, that Fransen "has enough time to publish these accusations, which the Lebanese, Hizbullah in particular, have been worrying about."
"Fransen could take into consideration the ongoing efforts to defuse tensions between the Lebanese over the indictment," the expert added.
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