Hariri Tribunal: Prosecution Completes Presentation of Evidence

A billboard of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. Reuters file photo
A billboard of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. Reuters file photo
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Hariri Tribunal: Prosecution Completes Presentation of Evidence

A billboard of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. Reuters file photo
A billboard of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. Reuters file photo

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor has completed the presentation of evidence in the Ayyash et al. Case before the court, marking the conclusion of the prosecution's case in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the STL said.

Since the start of the Prosecution case, it has presented evidence from over 260 individual witnesses and about 2,470 exhibits in documentary form, the tribunal said Wednesday.

The next step in the proceedings will be in accordance with Rule 167 of the STL Rules of Procedure and Evidence entitled “Judgement of Acquittal at the Close of the Prosecution Case”. In accordance with that rule, the judges will issue such a judgement on any count if they find that there is no evidence capable of supporting a conviction on that count, even in the absence of a Defense case.

The Trial Chamber will hear on February 20 and 21 the Rule 167 submissions of the Defense, any response from the Prosecution and any reply from the Defense. A judgement of acquittal or a decision dismissing the application will be delivered in court as soon as practicable thereafter, the court said in its press release.

The accused in the Ayyash et al. case, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra, who are “Hezbollah” members, remain at large. The proceedings against them are being held in absentia. On July 11, 2016, the Appeals Chamber ordered the termination of the proceedings against Mustafa Badreddine, without prejudice to the right to resume the proceedings, should evidence that he is alive emerge in the future.

Badreddine was killed in Syria in May 2016.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”