More Witnesses Testify in Hariri Assassination Trial
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard more witness testimonies on Friday a day after the defense team of four Hizbullah suspects claimed there was no conclusive evidence on the use of an explosives-laden Mitsubishi van to target the convoy of ex-PM Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.
Several witnesses appeared before the court on Friday.
One of them was Nazih Abou Rjaileh, the brother of Zahi Abou Rjaileh, who was killed in the attack. He spoke from Beirut via videoconference.
Nazih lamented that his brother's body was found the next day.
He said the medical examiner claimed that Zahi died 12 hours after the explosion despite the insistence of a police officer on Feb. 14 that there were no bodies left at the blast site.
“My brother wouldn't have died if he was found the same day,” the witness told the court.
The second witness's identity was kept a secret. He was referred to through a code as Witness PRH 352 and his voice and face were distorted so that he could not be identified.
The court said the witness falls under the STL's witness protection program.
His testimonies were not made public.
Witness Robyn Fraser, who had worked for the STL Office of Prosecution between August 2009 and August 2011, made a testimony on Wednesday and Thursday.
Fraser has detailed the path of the van as shown on CCTV cameras.
The footage an hour before the Feb. 14 attack showed the van, which the prosecution said was loaded with 2 tons of explosives, emerging from the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel that leads to the Beirut seafront where the explosion took place.
A similar van reappeared nearly an hour later on cameras around a minute ahead of Hariri’s convoy.
Fraser said that the lorry was moving at a pace ten times slower than other vehicles.
But when she was asked by the defense team if she cannot say conclusively that the van played any role in the explosion.
Fraser replied: “No, I cannot.”
The defense claims an underground explosion targeted Hariri's convoy. It is taking advantage of the prosecution's claim that it has no footage of the actual blast.
When the session resumed in the afternoon, the Prosecution requested that a highly emotional video be played at the courtroom. The video was broadcast by local and international TV stations in the wake of the bomb attack in 2005.
The Defense asked the bench to refuse the display of the video, but Presiding Judge David Re dismissed the Defense's request and allowed the Prosecution to play the footage.
The graphic video shows the burning body of the victim Mazen al-Zahabi -- a medic who was among ex-PM Hariri's entourage – as it fell from a window of one of the ablaze cars at the blast scene.
Judge Re accepted that the video be turned into a piece of evidence at the request of co-prosecutor Alexander Milne.
Milne then asked the witness Fouad Adnan al-Zahabi, Mazen's brother, to start giving his testimony.
The co-prosecutor asked the witness about the life and career of his brother and told him to describe how his brother Mazen viewed ex-PM Hariri.
“He was very happy and he considered him as a father,” said Fouad.
“My brother's body was largely incinerated and I recognized it from a surgery he underwent after a car accident, as a silver rod was planted in his leg. I informed them of his correct name and asked them to change the surname and they later conducted an X-ray on his leg to confirm what I said,” he told the court.
“I tell those who ordered and those who executed the crime that God will punish them if they were not punished on earth,” Fouad added.
Co-prosecutor Milne noted the Prosecution was facing difficulties with one of the witnesses and exerting efforts to secure his presence at The Hague, adding that the witness will arrive in The Hague in the weekend.
Judge Re then adjourned the session to 2:00 p.m., Monday.
The four Hizbullah suspects, who are on trial in absentia, are Mustafa Badreddine, Hassan Oneissi, Salim Ayyash and Assad Sabra.
The fifth to be indicted was Hassan Habib Merhi, who was indicted later than the other four suspects and is not officially a suspect in the trial that started Thursday but several accusations have been made against him.
His lawyers are attending the trial in observer status.
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