STL assigns defense attorneys for Hezbollah men

Special Tribunal for Lebanon defense head Francois Roux assigned Thursday eight attorneys to represent the four members of Hezbollah indicted in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, one day after the court handed down its landmark decision to move to an in absentia trial. Roux assigned the attorneys who served as duty counsel during the pre-trial phase as permanent counsel. In a statement, Roux said he was confident that he assigned “experienced and competent counsel. They are fully independent and can choose any strategy they see best fit to defend the rights of the accused.” Lead counsel Eugene O’Sullivan, a Canadian national, and co-counsel Emile Aoun, a Lebanese national, will represent Salim Jamil Ayyash. Lead counsel Antoine Korkmaz, who is a Lebanese and French national, and co-counsel John Jones, a British national, will represent Mustafa Amine Badreddine. Lead counsel Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse, a French national, and co-counsel Yasser Hassan, an Egyptian, will represent Hussein Hasan Oneissi. Lead counsel David Young, a British national, and co-counsel Dr. Guénaël Mettraux, a Swiss national, will represent Assad Hasan Sabra. Assigning counsel was the first step toward the trial but it will be months before hearings begin, according to STL spokesperson Marten Youssef. Speaking with reporters in Beirut Thursday, Youssef outlined the next steps. The prosecution has 30 days from Wednesday’s decision to hand over to the defense attorneys copies of all material that accompanied the indictment, including witnesses’ statements. Before the trial, there will also be a period for preliminary motions, during which the defense can challenge the jurisdiction of the tribunal. The defense counsel will also need to review the information from the prosecution and conduct an investigation of their own, which could mean interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence and visiting crime scenes. The judge will consult with the defense over how long they will need for the investigation and only after this will a tentative start date for the trial be set. The court’s rules require that the defense be allowed at least four months to complete the task. “We are hopeful that we will still be able to start the trial in 2012,” Youssef told reporters. The court made its decision to move forward with an in absentia trial after concluding that all efforts to apprehend the men failed, and that the extensive media coverage of the indictment makes it “inconceivable” that the accused are unaware of it. Lebanon’s public prosecutor, Saeed Mirza, sent six monthly progress reports to the tribunal, drawing the prosecutor’s attention to what Mirza described as “the delicate and sensitive security situation in Lebanon” as a reason for the failure to serve the arrest warrants. Article 3 of the court’s lengthy decision states: “The Trial Chamber has concluded that each of the four accused has absconded, and determined that the combination of these measures [taken by Lebanese authorities] has satisfied the legal requirements necessary to try the four accused in absentia.” According to Article 106, “The evidence establishes that massive if not blanket coverage was given in the Lebanese media both to the indictment itself and to connecting Mr. Ayyash, Mr. Badreddine, Mr. Oneissi and Mr. Sabra with the indictment. In the totality of these circumstances it is inconceivable that they could be unaware that they have been indicted.” While Article 105 says that “all attempts by the Lebanese authorities to date to apprehend them have failed,” the authorities are still required to search for the accused. If any of them are found when the trial in absentia is under way, the men have the right to be retried and if they are apprehended after a conviction, they may accept the conviction or sentence, accept the conviction but request hearing on the sentence or request a new trial entirely. Beirut - The Daily star