The Guardians of the Cedars -The Movement of Lebanese Nationalism issued the following communiqué:
From its inception to this date, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague was never subjected to fierce campaigns of slander, suspicions and accusations of treachery such as those to which it is subjected today by a group of Lebanese who have decided to assail the Court even before it issues its indictment and begins is public hearings. This group is oblivious to the fact that these preemptive campaigns have no bearing whatsoever on the Court’s process, and indeed turn the accusations around against the group itself, and thrust Lebanon closer to the precipice of losing its very existence.
It is obvious that the party that stands to be harmed by uncovering the assassination of Rafik Hariri and all the other crimes that preceded it and followed it is desperately seeking to avoid the consequences by all means possible. It is encircling and intimidating the Court, preemptively challenging its integrity and credibility, and charging at times that it is politicized, or at other times that it is biased towards Israel, or still at other times that it is linked to spy networks operating at its behest.
It is also obvious that the campaign of threats and menaces is likely to escalate as the Court gets closer to issuing the indictment, so much so that lifting the veil off these crimes is akin to lifting the lid off a snake's pit.
The honorable Lebanese are keen to grant the Court their full confidence, and they support it without reservation. They want the Court to proceed afoot with its proceedings to the end without worrying about the dissonant voices from here and there. The Lebanese people are thirsty for the truth to be exposed whatever the consequences. They are even thirstier to achieve justice just once in Lebanon’s contemporary history, when the rule has been to silence the truth and keep a lid on it, while the exception has been to bring the truth to light.
And speaking about the spy networks that we strongly denounce and which the State has dismantled, it is important to recall that the definition of treason applies to every citizen who colludes with a foreign country against the interests of his own country, whether that country is Israel or any other neighboring, regional or remote country. The interest of Lebanon ought to be above all other interests… On this basis, anyone who acts in secret or in public to put the interests of another country ahead of Lebanon’s interests is a full fledged traitor according to internationally recognized laws, and in accordance with that definition – and where treason deserves the death penalty – most of this country’s politicians who have betrayed Lebanon and sold it for 30 silvers like Judas Iscariot, before, during, and after the Syrian custody over Lebanon, ought to stand trial before anyone else on charges of high treason and receive their deserved punishments. We think there are not enough gallows for all the agents and traitors and other professional merchants of nations.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz