Hague tribunal continues trial of dead Hezbollah commander
Mustafa Badreddine, a senior Hezbollah commander, was
killed last month in a mysterious explosion in Damascus. In a public acknowledgment of his role in the party’s numerous exploits, Hezbollah held a massive funeral attended by thousands of the party’s officials and supporters, including Badreddine’s brother.
His casket was carried after receiving full military honours and a marching band performance to his final resting place in the party’s cemetery in the southern suburbs of Beirut, next to his comrade-in-arms and brother-in-law Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in 2008 in a car bomb prepared jointly by the CIA and Mossad.
But in a move described as “Kafkaesque” by a source close to the proceedings, on Wednesday an international tribunal in The Hague prosecuting Badreddine for alleged terrorism offences decided to continue his trial, citing insufficient evidence that he was dead.
Both defence and prosecution teams told the court they believed the evidence proved that Badreddine is dead. But in a two-to-one decision, the trial chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said the deceased Hezbollah commander would continue to stand trial.
“The trial chamber does not believe that sufficient evidence has yet been presented to convince it that the death of Mustafa Amine Badreddine has been proved to the requisite standard,” the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s judges said. “The trial will therefore continue pending the receipt of further information we anticipate from the government of Lebanon.”
Prosecutors allege that Badreddine was the apex of a cell that organised and carried out the massive bombing in downtown Beirut in 2005 that killed Lebanon’s popular billionaire former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The civil uprising that followed the truck-bomb attack led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from the country.
Badreddine was being tried in absentia because Hezbollah had refused to hand over its commander to an international tribunal in The Hague. The party denies all allegations that its members played a role in Hariri’s killing, and claims the tribunal is a joint American-Israeli conspiracy.
“It’s unbelievable,” a source close to the proceedings told the Guardian. “This is Kafkaesque. Two full days of court time and hundreds of lawyers.”
The tribunal will likely continue prosecuting the assassinated Hezbollah operative until it receives a death certificate from the Lebanese authorities – a tricky proposition since the commander
did not leave much of a paper trail throughout his life.
Badreddine is not the first high-profile defendant to die before his day in an international court.
Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Serbia, died in the midst of his trial in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Balkans.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Micheline Braidy of the trial chamber outlined why she believed it was obvious the shadowy commander had been slain.
“I’m convinced that Mr Mustafa Amine Badreddine is deceased,” Judge Braidy said. “Those events which have persuaded me include the following, mainly ... media reports of Mr Badreddine’s death, nationally and internationally; the video of the condolences ceremony on 13th of May 2016; funeral speeches delivered on the 13th of May 2016; the video of the casket entering the martyr cemetery of Rawdat-El-Shahidayn in Ghobeiry; the photo of the grave; the statement of Hezbollah regarding the cause of Mr Badreddine’s death; the visit of the Iranian delegation on the 14th May 2016, namely, the deputy foreign minister of Iran; the ceremony in Syria, attended by officials, Syrian, Palestinian, and Iranians; the ceremony held in Beirut on the 20th of May with the attendance of the family of Mr Badreddine; the ceremony held in Tehran, attended by the Badreddine relatives; the family declaration of the death of Mr Badreddine.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/01/hague-tribunal-continues-trial-of-dead-hezbollah-commander