Prosecution Unveils Route Taken by Booby-Trapped Truck to Reach St. Georges
The Hague - Naharnet Exclusive
The opening session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon trials witnessed a recollection of the bloody scenes of February 14, 2005, as the incidents of that day were demonstrated through pictures, videos and the oversized maquette of the crime scene which was placed in the middle of the courtroom.
These scenes evoked feelings of sadness and grief among the families of the victims and culminated to anger against the perpetrators of the crime. Some of the relatives sat inside the courtroom, led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who seemed to be fastened to his seat for long hours as if he was not believing what his eyes were seeing.
The wife of one of the February 14 victims said the Prosecution's demonstration introduced her to previously unheard-of details about her husband's martyrdom.
Although the Prosecution did not exhibit during the first day anything other than the details of the indictment that was announced several months ago, observers who attended the session stopped at a number of new elements that the Prosecution had never mentioned in the past and which he is expected to thoroughly address as the trials move forward.
The new elements that were revealed during the opening session can be summarized as follows:
1. The information about the “green” mobile phone network which was used for months by a group involved in the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri: It turned out that the mobile phone lines were postpaid rather than prepaid and were purchased using nine fake identification papers – one ID for each two lines.
One person was tasked with paying the bills at the main headquarters of the Alfa mobile phone operator in Furn al-Shebbak for a long period of time. It was noteworthy during the Prosecution's demonstration the information that five of these lines were permanently terminated on October 1, 2004 – the day of the attempt on MP Marwan Hamadeh's life. This fact could become the basis of linking the Hamadeh case to Hariri's case at the judicial level.
2. For the first time ever, the Prosecution announces that the telecom data evidence is backed up by other pieces of evidence that have nothing to do with the so-called “co-location.” The Prosecution also hinted that the content of some SMSes that are in its possession would clarify the identities of the users of some mobile phone lines that were used in the crime.
3. The Prosecution did not settle for the evidence of co-location between mobile phone lines to defend its accusations. It demonstrated two other points that are of the same importance: the first tackled the political stances and decisions that prompted the criminals to launch the process of monitoring Hariri's activities as well as the elements that led to intensifying the surveillance actions, while the second point addressed the movements of ex-PM Hariri and his shuttling between his Qureitem residence, the presidential palace in Baabda, the parliament building in downtown Beirut, the Beirut airport and his house in Faqra, Kesrouan.
4. For the first time ever, the Prosecution reveals that it has documented information about the routes that are relatively far from the crime scene that were taken by the booby-trapped Mitsubishi truck. All the previous available footage showed the truck as it approached the Phoenicia Hotel. But the videos exhibited by the Prosecution on Thursday included footage taken from cameras that captured the entry and exit of the truck to and from the Suleiman Franjieh Tunnel, which can only be accessed from three routes: the Salim Salam-Zoqaq al-Blat tunnel, Beshara al-Khoury and Ashrafiyeh. This presentation could be the prelude to new videos that would show how the truck came from locations that are beyond the Suleiman Franjieh Tunnel.
Specialists in criminal cases are saying that the Prosecution could not have demonstrated all the evidence it has in the indictment it issued months ago or in the presentation it made during the opening session of the trials. They are also saying that according to the history of criminal trials, it is safe to say that what's awaiting the accused is a lot more than what has already been announced until the moment, and that the Prosecution possesses undisclosed information that surpass anything imagined by those who are questioning the STL and its capabilities.
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