Report: STL Says No Hariri Murder Suspect in Videotape of Ashrafiyeh Blast Scene

The Office of the Prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has analyzed a videotape from the scene of the blast that killed Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch chief and ruled that none of the suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination were appearing in it, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said the Prosecutor's office had unofficially received one of the videotapes that caught the Oct. 19 car bomb blast in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district, which left ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan and two others dead.

But after less than 24 hours, the prosecution ruled that neither Salim Ayyash nor Hussein Oneissi were appearing in the tape after several reports lately said that the person who parked the car loaded with explosives - a man wearing a hat- was one of them, As Safir said.

The newspaper quoted the prosecution as saying that there is no minimum resemblance between that man and the Hariri murder suspects.

Ayyash, Oneissi and two others Mustafa Badreddine and Assad Sabra, who are Hizbullah members, have been indicted in Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination in a massive suicide car bombing.

In June last year, the STL issued warrants and Interpol has also issued a "red notice" for the suspects. But Lebanese authorities have not arrested them for allegedly not being able to find them.