Three other attacks on Lebanese politicians are being linked to the 2005 murder of the country's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the UN tribunal investigating his death said Friday.

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"The pre-trial judge has established that there is a connection between those three cases and the February 14, 2005 attack," Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) spokesman Marten Youssef said.

The STL took jurisdiction of the three attacks relating to two Lebanese ex-ministers who survived assassination attempts, Marwan Hamadeh and Elias Murr, as well as former Communist party head George Hawi, who was killed by a bomb blast on June 21, 2005.

"Judge (Daniel) Fransen ruled confidentially on 5 August that the prosecutor had presented prima facie evidence that each of these cases are connected, and are thus within the tribunal's jurisdiction," Youssef said.

The UN-backed court is tasked with identifying those behind Hariri's assassination as well as a string of bombings between 2004 and 2008 that killed or wounded several anti-Syrian politicians or journalists.

Four members of the radical Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement have been indicted for the massive bomb attack on February 14, 2005, that killed Rafiq Hariri and 22 others.

Source:AFA