Hariri 'fugitives' should get lawyer: defence chief

BEIRUT — The defence chief of a UN-backed court which has indicted Hezbollah members over the murder of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri on Tuesday urged those charged to get lawyers, warning they were now fugitives."As of now, as of the moment the arrest warrants are issued, whoever is charged is no longer a free person and becomes a fugitive," Francois Roux told AFP in an interview during a visit to Beirut."Their families, friends, communities can protect them, but... the only person who can now free the charged of the charges, and again render them free individuals, is a lawyer," said Roux."My only advice to those charged is that they consult a lawyer as soon as possible. Now is the time for defence."The UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) last week issued a sealed indictment for the 2005 assassination of Hariri, a powerful Saudi-backed Sunni billionaire and politician, along with arrest warrants for four Lebanese men.The four are operatives of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, including Mustafa Badreddine, a brother-in-law of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.While Roux said he had come to Lebanon to be "close to those indicted," he denied he had been informed of the names on the arrest warrants.He also urged anyone indicted by the STL -- the first international court with jurisdiction to try an act of terrorism -- to appoint a lawyer of their choice or contact his office, which had a list of 100 lawyers from 25 countries including Lebanon to provide defendants with court representation."The office of defence was set up to ensure defendants a fair trial, to give them arms in court equal to those of the prosecutor," he said, adding his "door is always open".Set up in 2007 near The Hague to investigate a string of assassinations in Lebanon from 2005 to 2008, the STL triggered a deep political crisis and led to the collapse in January of the country's Western-backed unity government.Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, on Saturda

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