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1. Mid of website Special Tribunal for Lebanon showing indictment

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++NIGHT SHOTS

Beirut, Lebanon - 17th January 2011

2. Wide of traffic near the Prime minister's office

3. Mid of traffic

4. VOXPOP (Arabic), Mohammad Ghalayini, voxpop:

"I do support the truth but I do not know exactly what is in the indictment. I do not know if it is politically biased or not. Some are saying it is but I am with the truth."

5. Mid of traffic

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Name not given, voxpop:

"I am with the arrest of the assassins of the Late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but I need the power to be back with the Lebanese judiciary system because there is no more justice in Lebanon. It is all politically biased."

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Beirut, Lebanon - 15th January 2011

7. Various of Hariri's grave

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File

Beirut, Lebanon - 14th February 2005

8. Wide of bomb blast scene

9. Various firefighters trying to put flames out

10. Mid bystanders carry injured person away on stretcher

11. Wide of scene

12. Various of crater caused by blast

13. Mid firefighters at scene

14. Firefighters carry person away on stretcher

15. Various of smoke plumes caused by explosion

The prosecutor of the United Nations tribunal set up to bring to justice the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri filed the first indictment in the case on Monday, the court announced.

Details of suspects named in the indictment and the charges against them were not released.

Hariri was killed along with 22 other people by a huge truck bomb blast on February the 14th, 2005, on Beirut's Mediterranean sea front.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Shiite militant group Hezbollah, said last year he expects members of his group to be indicted, a move that many fear could re-ignite sectarian violence that has erupted repeatedly in the tiny nation.

The Iranian and Syrian-sponsored group fiercely denies any role in the killing.

Hariri was a Sunni, and many Lebanese worry that if the tribunal draws links between the assassination and Hezbollah it could provoke bloodshed between Lebanon's Shiite and Sunni communities.

Tribunal registrar Herman van Hebel said in a statement that prosecutor Daniel Bellemare sent the indictments to Judge Daniel Fransen, who must decide whether to confirm or dismiss them or ask for more evidence.

A billionaire businessman, Hariri was credited with rebuilding Lebanon after its 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Fransen is expected to take six to 10 weeks studying the evidence before reaching a decision.

The names of suspects and evidence against them will only be released if he decides the evidence is strong enough to merit putting them on trial.

News of the indictment came as Lebanon's government has been plunged into turmoil by the resignation last week of Hezbollah and its allies from a broad coalition administration led by Hariri's son, Saad, who remains as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.

Hezbollah quit the government after Saad Hariri refused to renounce the UN-backed tribunal investigating his father's killing.