Report: Farrell Says No Death Certificates for 4 Suspects in Hariri Murder

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Norman Farrell submitted to the Trial Chamber a document revealing that the Lebanese authorities didn’t find any death certificates for the four suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

“The prosecution asked the competent Lebanese authorities on May 25 to present any document, including death certificates, for any of the four accused,” Farrell said, according to An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday.

The STL has announced that it would put Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra, who are members of Hizbullah, on trial in their absence over Hariri’s murder.

Farrell said in his report that the lawyers of the four suspects demanded the trial chamber on May 22 to reconsider its decision to set a trial in absentia on the basis that the chamber has to prove that the accused men are still alive.

He noted that the prosecution received “four memos from the Lebanese authorities confirming that there is no proof that there are any death certificates for the suspects.”

Ayyash, Badreddine, Oneissi and Sabra are wanted for the February 2005 suicide car bomb attack in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber.

According to media reports, the trials are expected to kick off at the end of 2012.