STL Trial Chamber to Hold Second Pre-Trial Conference ahead of January Trial
The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will hold a second Pre-Trial Conference on Monday, December 2, in preparation for the start of the trial in the Ayyash et al. Case, it announced in a statement on Tuesday.
The Pre-Trial Conference, which will be public, will begin at 3 p.m. Beirut time.
The Trial Chamber may decide to go into closed session if confidential matters need to be discussed, said the STL statement.
This Pre-Trial Conference is aimed at preparing for the start of trial on January 13, 2014. It follows a previous one held on October 29.
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.
The STL had urged the Lebanese authorities to apprehend the suspects, but they have failed.
The suspects will likely be tried in absentia.
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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