Second Day STL Trial of 4 Suspects Details Hours before, After Hariri's Assassination
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon held a second day of deliberations on Friday in the trial of four Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14, 2005 assassination.
The STL held its first in absentia hearing at the Hague on Thursday.
The suspects were absent as they have not been arrested. Hizbullah denies involvement in the murder and the group's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has denounced the court as a conspiracy by his archenemies — the U.S. and Israel.
The four suspects are Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Assad Sabra and Hassan Oneissi.
A fifth Hizbullah member, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted later than the other four suspects and is not currently on trial.
The prosecution's case is made up of evidence including large amounts of data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the suicide car bombing on the Beirut seafront.
Evidence showed that several phone users closely monitored Hariri in several areas in the last few days before his assassination.
From the time Hariri emerged from parliament on Feb. 14 at noon, six co-conspirators were moving in and around parliament and between the parliament and the crime scene and at the crime scene, it said.
Ayyash called Badreddine using the Green Network. He connected with a cell site at the crime scene while Badreddine was in Beirut's southern suburbs. This was the last time the phones were used.
The prosecution also said that the northern city of Tripoli was chosen as a location to buy the Mitsubishi van that was loaded with the explosives because it is 84 kilometers away from Beirut and is majority Sunni.
So is Abou Adas who made the false claim of responsibility for the attack through a tape broadcast on al-Jazeera.
“This is aimed at keeping a false trail,” it said.
Merhi, Sabra and Oneissi were responsible for the calls to Reuters and al-Jazeera on the claim, the prosecution told the court.
The upper level of the hierarchy of the operation to kill Hariri included Badreddine, Ayyash and Merhi for whom others worked, it said.
The prosecution expected evidence to show there was a family bond between Ayyash and Badreddine. Plus, all suspects lived close to one another.
This type of operation, sophisticated as it was, required a division of responsibilities led by Badreddine, it said.
He directed Ayyash and Merhi, while Ayyash was responsible for the command of the surveillance team, it added.
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