- Dec 6, 2009
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BEIRUT (AP) A long-awaited international indictment unsealed Wednesday offers no direct evidence linking four Hezbollah suspects to the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, despite years of painstaking investigations.
The indictment, which relies heavily on circumstantial evidence such as telephone records to link the men to the crime, played into efforts by the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah to discredit a case that has consumed and divided Lebanon for more than six years.
The indictment says the records showed "a coordinated use of these phones to carry out the assassination." According to the records, there was a flurry of calls shortly before Hariri's murder, but they stopped two minutes before the explosion.
The phones were never used again.
Prosecutors acknowledge in the indictment's preamble that they have no direct evidence linking the suspects to the attack. The file relies to a large extent on circumstantial evidence "which works logically by inference and deduction," the indictment said.
Media reports last year suggested that the Hariri case would hinge on telephone records, and Nasrallah has worked to cast doubt on the security of the system.
Lebanese officials have confirmed that Israel has penetrated Lebanon's telecommunications networks and has great control over them. In 2010, authorities detained two senior employees of one of the country's two cellular telecommunication companies on suspicion of spying for Israel.
The telecommunications minister at the time confirmed that Israel was able to infiltrate Lebanon's mobile telecommunications network and could manipulate phone calls and short messages.
No smoking gun in Lebanon's Hariri murder case - Yahoo! News
The indictment, which relies heavily on circumstantial evidence such as telephone records to link the men to the crime, played into efforts by the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah to discredit a case that has consumed and divided Lebanon for more than six years.
The indictment says the records showed "a coordinated use of these phones to carry out the assassination." According to the records, there was a flurry of calls shortly before Hariri's murder, but they stopped two minutes before the explosion.
The phones were never used again.
Prosecutors acknowledge in the indictment's preamble that they have no direct evidence linking the suspects to the attack. The file relies to a large extent on circumstantial evidence "which works logically by inference and deduction," the indictment said.
Media reports last year suggested that the Hariri case would hinge on telephone records, and Nasrallah has worked to cast doubt on the security of the system.
Lebanese officials have confirmed that Israel has penetrated Lebanon's telecommunications networks and has great control over them. In 2010, authorities detained two senior employees of one of the country's two cellular telecommunication companies on suspicion of spying for Israel.
The telecommunications minister at the time confirmed that Israel was able to infiltrate Lebanon's mobile telecommunications network and could manipulate phone calls and short messages.
No smoking gun in Lebanon's Hariri murder case - Yahoo! News
