BEIRUT: Head of Defense Office at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon François Roux said he looked forward to assisting in the defense of the four Hezbollah suspects implicated in the assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri, a local newspaper reported Friday.

Roux also told As-Safir that the question of the court’s legitimacy should be dealt with during the proceedings.

“I have an opinion regarding the indictment but based on my four decades of experience in this industry, I will not give it here. And I will just say that the defense lawyer cannot wait to be given the chance to refute the indictment,” Roux said in the interview published Friday.

Roux is the head of the defense team at the international tribunal probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri and is responsible for assisting the defense team, which will be setup in the future to defend the four Hezbollah suspects.

During the interview, Roux repeatedly urged those with evidence that might help refute STL Prosecutor General Daniel Bellemare’s indictment to come forward and present it to the defense office, adding that there was nothing taboo and that the lawyers would consider any kind of evidence provided.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has consistently accused the tribunal of being politicized and described it as a U.S.-Israel tool aimed at targeting the resistance and sowing sectarian strife in Lebanon. The tribunal has been a controversial issue between rival political parties in the country.

Following the release of the indictment, Nasrallah defended the four members of his organization – Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra – and described them as honorable members of the resistance who would never be arrested, not “in 300 years.”

The Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance has also said that the tribunal was set up in violation of Lebanon’s Constitution. It has also urged the Cabinet to stop financing the U.N.-backed court and to withdraw the Lebanese judges participating in tribunal.

Asked whether the defense team would be able to refute the legitimacy of the tribunal, which was established in 2007, Roux said: “I personally hope that the question of the court’s legitimacy is brought up in front of the judges so they could give us the final answer and there will be a pure legal discussion that is welcomed, healthy and positive for the tribunal.”

He added that delving into the issue of the court’s legitimacy would benefit the accused and justice.

Roux said he believed international tribunals were set up to achieve justice and that the STL should demonstrate it was formed for the same reasons.

“If the judges, by the end of the court, are convinced without any reasonable doubt that the evidence is sufficient then the conviction will be made, [and vise versa],” Roux said.

He gave an example of his work at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which some accused of having been politicized, saying: “I was able to vindicate [some of the accused] with the help of the team of lawyers.”

He also noted that the Lebanese lawyers who defended the four officers who were detained over suspicion of involvement in the case but then later released did not necessarily have the same political affiliations as their defendants but had carried out their duties as lawyers.

Roux also said that the four accused have three options: either to hand themselves in and be tried, or be represented by lawyers, or attend the court via video conferences, adding that if they wanted to tell the world that they were innocent, they should say that in court rather than in the media.

Roux was referring to the Time magazine article that reported an interview with one of the accused who claimed that he had been wrongfully accused and that authorities in Lebanon knew his whereabouts but could not arrest him.