A UN-backed court on Monday (September 16th) indicted a Hizbullah suspect accused of murdering ex-Lebanon premier Rafiq al-Hariri over three other attacks, in the first new case taken on by the tribunal since its creation in 2007, AFP reported.
Salim Ayyash was charged by a pre-trial judge with terrorism and murder over the deadly attacks on politicians in 2004 and 2005, said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The 55-year-old is one of four suspected members of Hizbullah charged with assassinating billionaire al-Hariri with a huge bomb in Beirut in 2005.
The Sunni former prime minister was allegedly killed because he opposed Syrian control over Lebanon. His death led to the "Cedar Revolution" which forced Damascus to pull out.
Judge Daniel Fransen "lifted today the confidentiality of his decision confirming an indictment against Mr Salim Jamil Ayyash relating to the attacks", said the tribunal based in a suburb just outside The Hague.
"The confirmation of this indictment marks the opening of a new case before the STL."
The first attack in Beirut on October 1st, 2004, wounded Druze MP and ex-minister Marwan Hamade, as well as another person, and killed his bodyguard, the tribunal said.
The second attack, also in Beirut, on June 21st, 2005, killed ex-leader of the Lebanese Communist Party Georges Hawi and injured two other people, while the third killed one person and injured then defence minister Elias el-Murr and 14 others in Antelias, near the Lebanese capital.
The tribunal was established by UN decree in 2007 and opened in the Hague suburb of Leidschendam in 2009.
