UN-backed court mulls trial for Hariri murder suspects

0
124

A UN-backed court Friday mulled a possible trial in absentia of four Hezbollah members accused of killing former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a move prosecutors said would be a “last resort.”
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is the only international court that has a mandate to try suspects in absentia and if it does, it would be the first such occurrence since the post-WWII Nazi trials at Nuremberg, a defence lawyer said.
Senior trial prosecutor Iain Morley opened the hearing, saying a trial in their absence for the four operatives of the Iran-backed Shiite militia would be “premature” because not enough has been done to track and arrest them.
“A trial in absentia should be a last resort and not a first choice,” Morley told the STL, based in the suburb of Leidschendam outside The Hague.
The four men are accused of murdering Hariri and 22 others in a massive car bomb blast in Beirut on February 14, 2005.