Four Hizbullah members indicated in the 2005 assassination  of ex-PM RAFIK HARIRI  to quickly consult a lawyer as said by  Francois Roux, the head of the Defense Office of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The four members whom the STL demanding for are been issued arrest warrant and are know  fugitives from international law, Roux noted.

“As of the moment the arrest warrants are issued, whoever is charged is no longer a free person and becomes a fugitive,” Roux told Agence France Presse in an interview during a visit to Beirut.

Lebanese officials have confirmed the four are operatives of Hizbullah, including Mustafa Badreddine, a brother-in-law of Hizbullah military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

Roux noted that their family ,friends and others can only protect them but the only thing which can save them is “the LAWYER”; they can only render them as free individuals. He urged them to consult a lawyer for their defence as soon as possible.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday said he would never hand over the four members of his group, adding that the Netherlands-based court was heading for a trial in absentia. Lebanon now has 30 days to find and arrest the four named in the warrants.

If no arrests are made, the court can publicize their names and call on the accused to surrender within a month, after which Roux can himself appoint lawyers from his office’s list to represent defendants in absentia

“But at the end, individuals will be either sentenced or acquitted. It is the tribunal that will make this decision, and not political parties”. Roux said

Report by:  Kushal Kumar