REPORT: MP Jumblatt to STL: Syria sought to limit Hariri’s power and influence

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt recounted on Wednesday how the Syrian regime used its allies in Lebanon to limit the power and influence of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

“Hariri was working on increasing the opposition to the unconstitutional extension of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's term in 2004," Jumblatt told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on the third day of his testimony.

But one of Syria's allies, then Interior Minister Sleiman Franjieh proposed an electoral draft-law that limited the powers of Hariri and the opposition backing him, said Jumblat.

Franjieh, an MP who heads the Marada Movement, is a good friend of Assad, said Jumblatt. “He used to act as a gang leader when he was interior minister," he said.

On his second day of testimony, Jumblatt said Hariri told him six days prior to his assassination, “either they will kill you or they will kill me.”

According to Jumblatt and several political figures who made testimonies at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Hariri had told them in August 2004 that Assad threatened to destroy Lebanon if the former PM rejected the extension of former Lebanese president Emile Lahoud's mandate.

Five Hezbollah members have been charged with plotting Hariri's assassination but have not been arrested. Their trial in absentia began in January 2014 and is ongoing.

Hezbollah denies involvement in the assassination and the group's chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has denounced the court as a conspiracy by his archenemies — the U.S. and Israel.

 

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by the United Nations at the Lebanese government's request to try the alleged perpetrators of the 2005 bombing in which former Lebanese PM Hariri and 21 others were killed.