Rifi Says Authorities to Cooperate with STL if It Asks for Badreddine's DNA
Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stressed Monday that Lebanese authorities will cooperate with the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon if it requests DNA samples to confirm the death of top Hizbullah military chief Mustafa Badreddine, who is wanted by the STL for alleged involvement in ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder.
“Rifi underlined willingness to cooperate with the STL in the case of ex-PM Hariri's assassination, emphasizing that any request from the court about the validation of the identity of any Accused will take its normal judicial course,” said a statement issued by Rifi's office.
The minister voiced his remarks during a visit to the tombs of Hariri, slain ex-minister Mohammed Shatah and slain police intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan in central Beirut, where he laid a red flower on every tomb, his office added.
Rifi noted that any STL request would be “referred to the public prosecutor's office, which would task the relevant authorities with conducting necessary DNA tests or any other measures that are aimed at unveiling the truth and fulfilling justice.”
The STL said Friday that it “took note” of media reports announcing the death of Badreddine in a blast in Syria.
“Pending a judicial determination, the STL is not in a position to make any comment on this announcement in the media,” the court said in a statement.
“The Special Tribunal for Lebanon remains committed to fulfill its mandate with the highest standards of international Justice,” it stressed.
The STL had indicted Hizbullah members Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra with Hariri's murder. A fifth suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was later charged.
Lebanese authorities have failed to arrest any of them and they are all being tried in absentia.
On Saturday, Hizbullah blamed “takfiri groups” for Badreddine's death.
Badreddine, who was on a U.S. terror sanctions blacklist and wanted by Israel, was killed in an explosion on Thursday night near Damascus international airport.
Hizbullah announced his death on Friday but without immediately apportioning blame, breaking with its usual pattern of accusing arch-foe Israel of responsibility.
On Saturday, it said a probe had concluded that Sunni Islamist radicals known as "takfiris", who consider Shiites to be heretics, had killed Badreddine.
"An investigation has shown that the blast that targeted one of our positions near the Damascus international airport that led to the martyrdom of the brother commander Mustafa Badreddine was caused by artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri groups present in that region," a Hizbullah statement said.
It did not name any specific group, and there has been no claim of responsibility.
A Syrian security source has told AFP that Badreddine was in a warehouse near the airport when it was rocked by a blast on Thursday night.
No aircraft was heard before the explosion, the source said.
The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, said no artillery fire had been heard in the area either in the past three days.
Badreddine, who was in his mid-50s, was Hizbullah's top military commander.
One of Hizbullah's most shadowy figures, Badreddine was also known by aliases Elias Saab and Sami Issa. He was only known to the public by a decades-old black-and-white photograph of a smiling young man wearing a suit until Hizbullah released a new image of him in military uniform.
Badreddine was also known for his expertise in explosives, apparently developing what would become his trademark explosive technique by adding gas to increase the power of sophisticated explosives.
He was also suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people. He was detained in Kuwait where he was sentenced to death and imprisoned for years until he fled jail in 1990 after Iraq's Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.
Y.R.
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