BEIRUT (BNO NEWS) -- A U.N.-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on Thursday handed over the Lebanon-portion of the indictment and arrest warrants for four Hezbollah members, Lebanon's State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza said.

According to the Daily Star, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) delegation handed over to Mirza the sealed indictment, which accused four Hezbollah members, during a meeting held at Mirza's office at the Justice Palace in Beirut.

"I will now examine the indictment and the warrants to take the appropriate measures," Mirza told reporters following the meeting.

A judicial source told The Daily Star that the indictment identified the suspects as Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Aineysseh and Asad Sabra. Badreddine, the brother-in-law of Hezbollah's slain commander Imad Mughaniyeh, allegedly masterminded and supervised the plot to assassinate Hariri.

Hezbollah Secretary General Al-Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah said last November that his group had no involvement in the murder of PM Hariri and 22 others. He added that they will not tolerate any accusation against any member of the organization.

Hezbollah has claimed that the UN-backed tribunal's probe is marred by witnesses who gave false information and urged the Lebanese government to deal with these 'false witnesses' in the tribunal.

Speaking to a local radio station, Minister of State of Administrative Affairs and Hezbollah member Mohammad Fneish said: “When we see the [STL] indictment, we will comment on it."

Lebanon, according to experts, now has 30 days to serve out the arrest warrants. If the suspects are not arrested within that period, the STL will then make public the indictment and summon the suspects to appear before the court.

Hariri was killed with 22 others on February 14, 2005, when a massive blast struck his motorcade in a seafront district of Beirut. The assassination sparked the so-called Cedar Revolution, a wave of mass protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year deployment.

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