Charbel Denies Reports Saying STL Investigators Requested Fingerprint Records
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel denied on Thursday 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.
“What some media reported that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigators requested the fingerprints of some Lebanese, is not true,” Charbel told al-Manar television.
On Wednesday, As Safir newspaper reported that the minister refused to hand the STL investigators the fingerprints of some Lebanese citizens because he “can’t evade the legal framework that organizes such requests.”
According to the report, Charbel said the STL cooperation protocol states that any request like this must be submitted to the general prosecution directorate.
In March 2011, ex-Interior Minister Ziad Baroud confirmed that he supplied the 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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