STL Hears More Witness Testimonies in Hariri Murder

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon resumed on Monday hearing the testimony of witnesses in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination in a massive bombing that targeted his convoy in Beirut.

A retired member of the Internal Security Forces, Abdul Badih al-Soussi, testified via video conference from Beirut.

The court in 2011 issued arrest warrants against Mustafa Badreddine, 52, Salim Ayyash, 50, Hussein Oneissi, 39, and Assad Sabra, 37, all members of Hizbullah.

The four suspects were indicted in 2011 with plotting the attack, but have not been arrested. A fifth, Hassan Habib Merhi, was charged late last year in the case and is also still at large.

Brig. Gen. al-Soussi, who was the head of the explosives bureau and whose role was administrative, said he was not asked to go to the site of the explosion on Beirut's seafront where Hariri was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005.

But he attended a meeting at the military court called for by the military examining magistrate on that afternoon.

Al-Soussi said senior and junior officers attended the meeting under Judge Rashid Mezher.

From within the junior officers there was an explosives officer, a person under the supervision of the head of the explosives and tracking division. Two other bureau members were with him.

That division was at the time headed by a Lt. Col., he said, adding he was in charge of people who were specialized in the field of explosives.

Al-Soussi said the member of the explosives bureau brought with him to the meeting car parts. It was said the parts were found in the crater that was caused by the blast.

The witness told the court that the head of the bureau wrote a report on the findings because he was working on the ground and gathered the parts.

The report came after Mezher tasked the members of the explosives bureau to check the nature of the metallic parts and to what cars they belonged.

Al-Soussi said he did not think that minutes were taken during the military court meeting.

Al-Soussi said he didn't have any information whether all of those who had attended the meeting or some of them had gone to the crime scene.

Al-Soussi said there was no discussion on the number of deceased or wounded during the meeting.

When cross-examined by David Young, Sabra's lead counsel, al-Soussi confirmed that he told investigators probing Hariri's murder in his statement in Aug. 2005 that Mezher had asked those who attended the meeting to secure the crime scene.

Al-Soussi also confirmed telling them that the way to secure a crime scene is to cordon it off.

Al-Soussi said he told investigators that there was no mention during the meeting on removing the motorcade cars from the crime scene.

He denied that he had ordered items to be returned to the crime scene to be photographed.

The prosecution claims that the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber driving a white Mitsubishi van. But the defense stresses that there is no evidence to that and is sticking to the theory of an underground blast.