AMSTERDAM |
Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:10pm EDT

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A judge at the U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri Monday asked for four fugitive Hezbollah suspects to be tried in absentia.
The Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah has denied any role in the 2005 bombing which killed Hariri, a billionaire Sunni Muslim politician, and 21 other people on the Beirut seafront and has said it will refuse to allow any of the suspects to be arrested.Hariri’s killing plunged Lebanon into a series of political crises and assassinations that led to clashes in May 2008, dragging the country to the brink of conflict in a country still scarred by its 1975-1990 civil war.Pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen, who is responsible for ensuring the trial is prepared fairly, asked the Hague-based court to “determine whether proceedings in absentia should be considered.”Under the tribunal’s rules, judges can consider whether to start a trial without the suspects being present if they have not been arrested within 30 days of the indictment’s public advertisement.The suspects were named in July as Mustafa Amine Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah figure and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh, as well as Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra.Warrants for their arrest were issued by the tribunal the previous month but Lebanon told the court in August that it had
read more at Reuters…