Charbel Confirms STL Investigators Requested Fingerprints of 'Some Lebanese'
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed on Wednesday that the investigators of the U.N.-backed court probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri requested the fingerprint records of some Lebanese citizens.
“I informed them that I can’t evade the legal framework that organizes such requests,” Charbel told As Safir newspaper.
He said that according to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon cooperation protocol, any request like this must be submitted to the general prosecution directorate.
“They have to submit the request to the general prosecution,” Charbel stressed.
In March 2011, ex-Interior Minister Ziad Baroud confirmed that he supplied court prosecutor Daniel Bellemare with the fingerprint records of some Lebanese, noting that it was not possible to give him the fingerprints of all the Lebanese.
A dispute recently rose in Lebanon on whether the March 8-dominant government would renew the mandate of the STL with some amendments to the cooperation protocol.
However, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said during his visit to Lebanon last week that there’s no need to modify the protocol, noting that the mandate would be automatically extended.
He said that the timeframe of the extension would be in consultation with the Lebanese government and the U.N. Security Council.
The mandate of the STL expires on February 29.
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