Report: Indictment in Hamadeh’s Murder Attempt to be Issued in Dec.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen is expected to issue an indictment in the assassination attempt of MP Marwan Hamadeh this month, informed sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Monday that the indictment will be issued before Christmas.

Fransen would later issue the indictments in the assassination attempt of former Minister Elias Murr and the killing of ex-communist party leader George Hawi, they said.

The tribunal established jurisdiction over the three attacks in August.

According to the tribunal’s statute, a case is connected to the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri if it is of a "similar nature and gravity" and has a number of elements in common with it, such as “the criminal intent (motive), purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks (modus operandi) and the perpetrators.”

According to Article 1 of the statute, the tribunal has jurisdiction over attacks that occurred in Lebanon between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005 but only if their connectedness to the Hariri attack is determined by the pre-trial judge.

Meanwhile, al-Hayat said that the STL sent a letter to General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza asking him about the efforts of Lebanese authorities to find the four Hizbullah suspects indicted in Hariri’s murder.

Mirza, in his turn, handed the letter to Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, the newspaper reported.

The four Hizbullah members are Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra.