BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is scheduled to testify at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon starting Monday, after Future bloc MP Ghazi Youssef wrapped up his own testimony. A Sidon MP, Siniora is expected to testify about the political context in Lebanon prior to the assassination of his close friend, late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Siniora was supposed to appear before the tribunal in January but postponed his testimony due to health reasons. Media reports at the time speculated that the deferral of Siniora’s appearance was related to the ongoing Hezbollah-Future dialogue meetings. But he denied the rumors, stating that he was ill.
Siniora twice served as finance minister under Hariri before forming his own government in July 2005.
It remains unclear what effect, if any, the former prime minister’s testimony will have on the ongoing Hezbollah-Future talks. Despite three months of sustained dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement, tensions have recently mounted between the two groups after Siniora delivered a fiery speech stating that because of Hezbollah’s intervention in the Syrian crisis, Lebanon was “no longer safe” and could no longer ensure the “continuity of its institutions.”
Five Hezbollah suspects have been charged with plotting the explosion that killed Hariri and 21 others on Feb. 14, 2005.
Youssef, another one of Hariri’s political allies, completed his testimony at the STL Friday.
During cross-examination, Youssef said that in the days prior to his assassination, Hariri felt he was being “followed” by members of the Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus.
After a number of employees of Hariri’s benevolent organization were arrested, Hariri called then-head of Military Intelligence Gen. Raymond Azar on Feb. 12, 2005. “Why are you doing this, following me and arresting people associated with me?” Hariri asked Azar, according to a statement Youssef gave to U.N. investigators several years ago.
The statement was read aloud in the court.
Youssef, who was in the room while Hariri made the phone call, said the former prime minister intentionally called Azar from a landline.
“Prime Minister Hariri knew that landlines, when he used them, were tapped ... He knew that there were people who were monitoring his communications when he was speaking on a landline,” Youssef told the court.
Hariri intentionally used landlines when he wanted to communicate a message to the Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus, Youssef said.
“When he sent that message directly to Raymond Azar, he was conveying the message to all those who were behind Gen. Azar who were ... conducting surveillance on him and his allies.”
The same day, Hariri also called the head of the Internal Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Hajj, reproaching him for allowing the arrests to take place.
Two days after the phone calls were placed, Hariri was dead. In the summer of 2005, Hajj, Azar and two other Lebanese generals were arrested in connection to Hariri’s murder. But they were ultimately released in April 2009 for lack of evidence.
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