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Europe | |||
Hariri murder trial opens in The Hague | |||
2014-01-17 | |||
The trial of the four men accused of killing former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al Hariri opened in The Hague on Thursday, nine years after the bomb attack in which 21 others also died. The four members of LebanonÂ’s militant Hezbollah movement are charged with planning the 2005 blast on BeirutÂ’s waterfront, an attack which almost tipped the country back into civil war.
“The evidence, including a considerable amount of telecoms data, leaves marks behind concerning the true identities of the perpetrators,” said prosecutor A large scale model of the scene of the bombing scene stood in the middle of the courtroom, with a mock-up of the St George Hotel, in front of which a Mitsubishi van laden with up to 3000kg of high explosives detonated, leaving a massive crater. “The attackers used an extraordinary amount of high explosives, far more than necessary,” Farrell said. “It is not that the perpetrators did not care if they killed their fellow citizens. They intended to do so.”
The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up with the support of the United Nations and the backing of the then Lebanese government to investigate and prosecute HaririÂ’s killing. | |||
Posted by:Steve White |