Two men were indicted Thursday on charges of plotting to assassinate Future Movement MP Bahia Hariri at the behest of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. Military Investigative Judge Riad Abou Ghida issued an indictment against Mohammad Mustafa al-Dabet, accusing him of being an Israeli agent and working at the instructions of Walid al-Naqouzi, a Lebanese national living in Israel has been indicted in absentia.
The plot to assassinate Hariri came in the wake of the now-withdrawn resignation of her nephew Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Nov. 4, 2017. The aim of the planned assassination was to destabilize the country’s security situation, according to the indictment. The judge’s recommendation was based on penal code articles that allow for a life sentence with hard labor. Abou Ghida referred the case to the Military Tribunal for trial.
In the indictment, Abu Ghida noted that the facts and confessions “prove that Dabet had criminal intent,” referring to a voice note Dabet sent Naqouzi in which he said that he was “ready to carry out whatever was asked of him as long as it would benefit him financially.”
