STL Trial Chamber adjourns hearing in Ayyash et al. case for immediate future

The Trial Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon adjourned the hearing in the Ayyash et al. case for the immediate future to allow Hassan Merhi Counsel adequate time to prepare for Trial.

The Chamber discussed in its Wednesday sessions at The Hague administrative measures after the inclusion of Merhi's file to Ayyash and his colleagues file.

The president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Sir David Baragwanath officially joined on Tuesday the case of Hassan Merhi to the trial of the four alleged Hezbollah supporters accused of plotting and executing the explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The move will reportedly result in the tribunal’s adjournment for at least several weeks while Merhi’s defense team is brought up to speed.

The trial in absentia of the four suspects accused of killing Lebanese statesman Rafic Hariri opened in The Hague on Thursday January 16th, nine years after the bomb attack in which the former prime minister and 21 others died.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by the United Nations at the Lebanese government's request to try the alleged perpetrators of the 2005 bombing in which former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others were killed.

The suspects - Mustafa Amine Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah figure and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra - remain at large.