THE HAGUE: Lawyers representing four Hezbollah members being tried in absentia for the 2005 killing of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri yesterday dismissed the prosecution’s case so far, saying it was “bereft of motive.”
Speaking on the second day of the trial before a UN-backed court in The Hague, defence lawyers said the prosecution’s allegations over who killed billionaire Hariri and 22 others in the February 15, 2005 car bombing were a “mere theory.”
“It’s quite surprising to see this crime bereft of motive for the time being,” Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse told journalists.
“The prosecutor has not put forward any reason” for the bombing, he said after Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) prosecutors wrapped up their opening statements. Prosecutor Graeme Cameron told judges the deadly Beirut seafront bomb blast that also injured 226 others was a “sophisticated and planned operation.”AFP
