LOC19:11
16:11 GMT
BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (KUNA) -- The closing arguments in the case of the 2005 assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in the Hague concluded Friday after nine days.
The Judges will now withdraw to deliberate and they will issue a judgement in due course, noted and STL press release.
Four suspected members of the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra were charged with conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act.
The trial in the case opened before the STL on January 16, 2014.
Since then, there have been 406 trial days. Currently, 72 victims are participating in the proceedings through their legal representatives.
The transcript of the 406 days of proceedings to date totals 35,876 pages in English, 36,552 in French and 18,688 in Arabic.
The case relates to the February 14, 2005 attack, which killed 22 individuals, including the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and injured 226 others.
Ayyash is also charged with committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device, the intentional homicide of Hariri with premeditation using explosive materials, the intentional homicide of an additional 21 persons, with premeditation using explosive materials and with the attempted intentional homicide of 226 people with premeditation by using explosive materials.
Merhi, Oneissi and Sabra are also charged with being accomplices to each of the four counts charged against. Ayyash.
All four Accused remain at large. The proceedings against them are being held in absentia.
Initially, Mustafa Amine Badreddine was charged in the indictment. However, on 11 July 2016, following reports of his death in May 2016, the Trial Chamber terminated the case against him. (end)
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