Hezbollah denies it was behind al-Hariri’s assassination

LEBANON’S Hezbollah yesterday rejected charges in a German magazine that it was behind the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri and said the “fabrications” were made to try to influence next month’s general election.

A suicide truck bomber killed Hariri and 22 other people in Beirut on February 14, 2005. A UN investigation into the assassination first implicated Syrian and Lebanese officers, but later held back from giving any details on its findings.

A UN Special Court for Lebanon began in March and one of its first actions was ordering the Lebanese authorities to release four pro-Syrian generals who had been held in connection with the case after saying it had no evidence against them.