The Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard on Thursday the controversy on telecommunications data that erupted in the aftermath of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

MP Marwan Hamadeh, who is the first politician to appear in court as a witness in the in absentia trial of five Hizbullah members, provided answers during the cross-examination of defense counsel Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse.

MP Marwan Hamadeh revealed on Wednesday that he had held talks in Spring 2005 with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in order to inquire about the attempt against his life in October 2004.

“I met with Nasrallah in late April-early May to ask him if his party was behind the assassination attempt,” he said during his ongoing testimony at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon's Trial Chamber decided Tuesday to add MP Walid Jumblat and journalist Ali Hamadeh to the Prosecution's list of witnesses in the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, amid debate between the Defense and judges over remarks by MP Marwan Hamadeh describing the accused Hizbullah members as “criminals.”

The Trial Chamber assessed that Jumblat and Hamadeh can provide evidence in the case due to their contact with the slain premier before his death.

MP Marwan Hamadeh resumed on Monday his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by recounting the developments in the country following the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term and detailing the assassination attempt against him in October 2004.

He said before the Trial Chamber: “A brief investigation was launched in my assassination attempt before Syrian officials took away the files and transported them to the headquarters of Syrian intelligence in Anjar.”

MP Marwan Hamadeh told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday that during the months that preceded ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination in Feb. 2005, Syria sought to grant former President Emile Lahoud “all powers” at a time when Hariri worked on forming an anti-Damascus opposition in hopes of winning the general elections.

“Lebanon was a parliamentary system, which was being shifted by Syria into a presidential system, whereby Lahoud - a Syrian candidate and a Syrian representative - was grabbing all powers,” Hamadeh told the STL Trial Chamber.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel expressed concern on Thursday over the “dangerous situation” imposed by the vacuum at the Baabda Palace, calling on the Lebanese arch-foes, in particular those behind the obstruction of the presidential elections, to assume their responsibilities.

“Lebanese factions shouldn't under any circumstances obstruct a national, legal, constitutional and political path,” Gemayel said in a lengthy interview with the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper. “It is an unforgivable sin.”

MP Marwan Hamadeh told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday how relations between slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad broke down over the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term in 2004.

Hamadeh, on his third day of testimony, said he met with Hariri at the residence of Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat in Beirut's Clemenceau area in August 2004 upon the former premier's return to the Lebanese capital from a meeting with Assad.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed regret that the parliament will once again Wednesday fail to elect a new president despite the “positive signs” that had emerged on the crisis.

Parliament is scheduled to convene to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman whose six-year term ended in May.

MP Marwan Hamadeh resumed on Tuesday his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, focusing on Syria's hegemony over Lebanon under the premiership of slain PM Rafik Hariri and examining his ties with former President Emile Lahoud.

The ties between Hariri and MP Walid Jumblat came into prominence during the debate over the extension of Lahoud's term in 2004, prompting the STL Prosecution to reveal that it is studying the possibility of summoning the lawmaker to make his testimony before the tribunal.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard on Monday the testimony of Shouf MP Marwan Hamadeh in the Feb. 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, at the start of evidence provided by Lebanese politicians and influential figures on Syria's alleged complicity in the killing.

Hamadeh said Hariri played a major role in the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Taef Accord in 1989. But the agreement “wasn't enforced because of political conflicts.”