Youssef Says Combining Cases of Ayyash et al., Merhi Possible
Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef said on Monday that joining the cases of Ayyash et al. and the fifth suspect Hassan Habib Merhi is up to the international judges.
“The second Pre-Trial Conference by the Trial Chamber of the STL on Monday will decided the matter,” Youssef told An Nahar newspaper.
He pointed out that combining the two cases or separating occurs after the prosecution’s offices files a request.
“The judges then study the request and decide whether to approve the request or not,” Youssef said.
He noted that “eventually the two cases will be joined.”
The STL is tackling the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.
In 2011, four Hizbullah members, Mustafa Amin Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra, were indicted in the attack.
A fifth Hizbullah suspect, Hassan Habib Merhi, was indicted in 2013.
Asked if joining the case of Merhi to the case of Ayyash et al. legally threatens the basis of the trial, Youssef said that the answer is in the hands of the judges.
An Nahar reported that the Defense Office rejects adding new cases to a trial that the STL already began discussing.
The STL had continuously urged the Lebanese authorities to apprehend the suspects, but they have failed.
The suspects will likely be tried in absentia.
Youssef said that the suspects will be able to ask for a re-trial if they were detained or they handed themselves to the judiciary, even if the term of the STL was over.
“A request would be filed to the U.N. Security Council, which will set the court that will look into the case,” the STL official said.
Sources told An Nahar that the Lebanese courts might be an option if the Security Council decided to re-trial the suspects.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the STL, describing it as an American-Israeli product bent on destroying the party.
He has vowed never to cooperate with the tribunal, saying that the suspects will never be found.
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