Witnesses Testify in Hariri Murder Trial

by Naharnet Newsdesk 22 January 2014, 11:21

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon began for the first time on Wednesday to hear the testimonies of witnesses in the trial of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's February 2005 assassination.

The testimonies came after the STL prosecution, the lawyers for victims and defense attorneys of two suspects made their opening statements since the trial was launched last Thursday.

The four Hizbullah suspects – Mustafa Badreddine, Hassan Oneissi, Salim Ayyash and Assad Sabra - have been indicted in Hariri's murder in what prosecutors say was a suicide truck bombing that killed him and 21 others on the Beirut seafront.

The suspects are being tried in absentia because they haven't been arrested.

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.

Wednesday's hearing started with the prosecution listing the names and brief histories of the victims.

Then Abdul Qader Darwish, the brother of Mohammed Darwish, one of the victims of the attack, briefed the court on the emotional suffering of his family after the explosion.

Mohammed Darwish was part of the Hariri convoy.

The witness said his family and himself had also suffered from medical conditions due to their grief.

Darwish had to eventually identify his brother's body at a hospital, he said, adding the victim "was totally maimed and ripped apart.”

The second witness Mamdouh Mohammed Tarraf is the brother of victim Ziad Tarraf, who had worked for Hariri as a personal bodyguard since 1987.

Tarraf said he identified his brother from the shoes he was wearing. His body was burned but his feet were left intact.

A third witness, Robyn Fraser, who worked for the STL Office of the Prosecution between August 2009 and August 2011.

Senior Trial counsel, Alexander Milne of the office of the Prosecution, focused on various surveillance camera footage taken near the area where Hariri was assassinated.

He showed footage taken from the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel leading towards the Phoenicia and Monroe Hotels.

This footage focused on a white lorry, suspected of being the Mitsubishi vehicle that was carrying the explosives used in the assassination.

The testimony revealed that the lorry had arrived at the scene about an hour before the attack where it headed off on a road near the Monroe Hotel before once again being captured on the same camera, located at the exit of the tunnel, an hour later and presumably headed to the location where the attack was to take place.

The Prosecution then showed footage taken from a camera on the corner of the Phoenicia Hotel that also captured an image of the lorry.

It was stated during the testimony that the time stamp on the footage of the cameras can be placed manually, thus leading to findings that the time on the various footage was not accurate in line with the assassination.

The assassination took place at 12:55 pm on February 14, 2005.

The camera at the exit of the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel was found to be two minutes slower than actual time and the camera at the Phoenicia Hotel was found to be 48 minutes faster.

The Prosecution will focus on Thursday on footage taken by a surveillance camera at the HSBC Bank near the crime scene.

The session was adjourned to 11 am on Thursday.

The defense lawyers of Badreddine and Oneissi cited on Monday lack of evidence against the accused and stressed the difficulty of their role over lack of cooperation of the Lebanese authorities and lack of time to study the indictment.

Prosecutors are relying on a web of timings and locations of mobile phone calls they say were made by the bombers as they tracked Hariri in the months, weeks, days and minutes before his assassination.

Timeline

22 January 2014, 18:02
The session was adjourned to 11 am Beirut time on Thursday.
22 January 2014, 17:53
The Prosecution showed an image of the HSBC near the crime scene and the location of a surveillance camera facing the scene.
22 January 2014, 17:32
The witness said that the CCTV camera footage at the Phoenicia Hotel was 48 minutes faster than the actual time and the tunnel cameras were running two minutes slow.
22 January 2014, 17:30
The Prosecution showed an image taken at 13:42 pm from the Phoenicia Hotel that captured the smoke caused by the explosion.
22 January 2014, 17:15
The witness said it was difficult to determine whether the truck captured by the Phoenicia Hotel camera was parked or not, but she had assumed that it was moving.
22 January 2014, 17:07
The Prosecution showed footage of the lorry taken from the Phoenicia Hotel camera, which faces the Monroe Hotel.
22 January 2014, 16:54
The Prosecution focused its attention on the footage captured by camera 7 of the Phoenicia Hotel, which is located on the corner of the building overlooking the exit of the tunnel.
22 January 2014, 16:54
In June 2005, the head of security at Phoenicia Hotel provided surveillance footage from four cameras, revealed the witness.
22 January 2014, 16:51
The witness said that many cameras were obtained from the Phoenicia Hotel prior to the establishment of the STL.
22 January 2014, 16:50
The Phoenicia Hotel used a VHS system at the time for surveillance cameras.
22 January 2014, 16:50
The witness said that around 82 surveillance cameras exist inside and outside of the Phoenicia Hotel, the majority of which were on the inside of the facility.
22 January 2014, 16:42
The witness said that the delay can be applied to all the footage on that one tape.
22 January 2014, 16:41
The Prosecution said that one can conclude that the time shown in the camera footage is slow by 54 seconds, which the witness confirmed.
22 January 2014, 16:40
The witness added however that she was given that the time of the explosion was at 12:55.03 pm.
22 January 2014, 16:39
The witness said that the explosion took place at 12:53.09 pm at her best estimate.
22 January 2014, 16:39
The video footage of the explosion was showed from the camera at the exit of the tunnel.
22 January 2014, 16:36
After disappearing to the right of the tunnel at around 11:55 am, the white lorry returned in view of the camera at the exit of the tunnel at 12:49 pm and appeared to be heading to the left, said the Prosecution.
22 January 2014, 16:27
The witness said that the lorry may have gone to the right lane outside of the tunnel near the Monroe Hotel.
22 January 2014, 16:19
The Prosecution showed ground and aerial images of the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel.
22 January 2014, 16:09
The STL resumed its session.
22 January 2014, 14:49
The session was adjourned to 3:30 pm Beirut time.
22 January 2014, 14:49
The witness said that the lorry turned to the right of the street when it exited the tunnel.
22 January 2014, 14:40
The Prosecution explained that no front-facing footage from the tunnel exists, only those of the back of vehicles, such is the nature of CCTV cameras.
22 January 2014, 14:39
The Prosecution showed a video clip from the exit of the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel taken at 11:54 am on February 14, 2005.
22 January 2014, 14:31
The Prosecution discussed the details of the location presented by footage from one of the tunnels cameras, including the location of the Phoenicia and Monroe Hotels.
22 January 2014, 14:21
The witness said that the time stamp system was good and required little maintenance.
22 January 2014, 14:19
The witness confirmed that the time stamp could have been placed by sides outside of the system.
22 January 2014, 14:19
The witness explained that the person she had questioned at the time over the time stamp did not have clear answers about how and when the process was done.
22 January 2014, 14:17
Trial Chamber Judge Walid Akoum inquired about how the time stamp is set on the camera footage in the tunnel.
22 January 2014, 14:11
The Prosecution inquired about the clarity and quality of the camera footage in the tunnel.
22 January 2014, 14:06
The witness explained that the different camera footage was the same, but some timeframe discrepancies of a matter of seconds were found.
22 January 2014, 14:03
The Prosecution inquired if the date and time on the camera footage could be placed manually, which witness Robin Fraser confirmed.
22 January 2014, 13:56
The discussions are discussing the camera footage in the Suleiman Franjieh tunnel.
22 January 2014, 13:41
A third witness was brought to testify in the case.
22 January 2014, 12:45
Tarraf: I have a void in my life. My brother's loss was great for me and his kids.
22 January 2014, 12:39
Tarraf: My brother's feet were not burned because the shoes were in leather.
22 January 2014, 12:38
Tarraf: I identified my brother from the shoes he was wearing. He also had six toes on one foot. His body was completely incinerated but I could never forget the features of his face.
22 January 2014, 12:36
Tarraf said he went to several Beirut hospitals where the bodies were taken. He found his brother in the morgue of AUBMC.
22 January 2014, 12:35
Tarraf said his mother came to Future TV where he worked, asking about Ziad. They tried to call him but didn't get any answer.
22 January 2014, 12:33
Tarraf said his brother had been wearing his shoes on the day of the attack.
22 January 2014, 12:29
Tarraf said his brother Ziad had worked for Hariri as a personal bodyguard since 1987.
22 January 2014, 12:27
Tarraf said his brother considered Hariri as a friend and brother.
22 January 2014, 12:26
The 2nd witness is Mamdouh Mohammed Tarraf, the brother of victim Ziad Tarraf.
22 January 2014, 12:23
The second witness came into court.
22 January 2014, 12:13
Darwish: My mother is still sick and my father's condition is deteriorating daily.
22 January 2014, 12:12
Darwish: I stopped studying and had to work to provide for my family. I felt myself in charge of this family after our loss.
22 January 2014, 12:11
Darwish said his dead brother was the only breadwinner.
22 January 2014, 12:10
Darwish said his sister had a heart attack and his mother is depressed.
22 January 2014, 12:09
Darwish had to eventually identify his brother's body: He was totally maimed and ripped apart.
22 January 2014, 12:08
Darwish said that when the explosion went off he did not head to the blast scene. He headed to hospitals to search for him.
22 January 2014, 12:05
Darwish said “we felt the power of the blast” although the location of his work was in Sin el-Fil.
22 January 2014, 12:04
Darwish said he later found out that Hariri was killed and his brother too.
22 January 2014, 12:03
Darwish said he was working at Future TV on the day of the attack: When photos started appearing, we were shocked and then we started to hear who was targeted.
22 January 2014, 12:01
Mohammed Darwish, one of the victims of the Feb. 2005 attack, was the witness's brother.
22 January 2014, 11:59
The prosecution began asking Darwish questions.
22 January 2014, 11:58
The prosecution called for the first witness identified as Mr. Abdul Qader Darwish.
22 January 2014, 11:55
The prosecution: The court will hear from witnesses on some of the people whose pictures have been now presented.
22 January 2014, 11:44
The prosecution is listing the names and brief histories of the victims of the Feb. 2005 attack.
22 January 2014, 11:42
The prosecution said the witness testimony will be accompanied by a series of pictures.
22 January 2014, 11:37
The prosecution anticipated to hear the full testimonies of 2 witnesses and make good progress with the third.