Date: Sep 19, 2018 Source: The Daily Star STL: Merhi defense focuses on chaotic crime scene Victoria Yan| The Daily Star LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands: The defense team for Hassan Merhi argued in its closing arguments Tuesday at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that the mishandling of the crime scene significantly weakens the prosecution’s case. The defense team for Hussein Oneissi was originally scheduled to present its closing arguments Tuesday, but the team’s lawyers requested that its part be delayed. It is now scheduled to follow Merhi’s team, which will likely conclude by Wednesday afternoon. The prosecution contended Merhi was in charge of coordinating the so-called false claim, in which a young Palestinian, Ahmad Abu Adass, was manipulated into confessing to carrying out the bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. The prosecution went on to argue that as the false claim’s coordinator, Merhi directed two of the other accused, Oneissi and Assad Sabra, in recruiting and deceiving Abu Adass. In the hours after the attack, which took place on Feb. 14, 2005, a video tipped to Al-Jazeera’s Beirut office supposedly showed Abu Adass claiming to be a militant with a group called Nusra and Jihad in Greater Syria. In the video tape, Abu Adass is supposedly shown confessing having assassinated Hariri as revenge for the “innocent martyrs who were killed by the security forces of the infidel Saudi regime.” But subsequent investigations determined that the extremist group did not exist and that the video was a fraud intentionally created to mislead investigators. Moreover, Abu Adass’ remains were never identified at the crime scene, which led the prosecution to believe that he was killed by Merhi, Oneissi and Sabra. To counter this narrative, Merhi’s defense team argued that Abu Adass’ body could very likely have been found had the crime scene not been so poorly managed. In the hours after the bombing, key elements, including the convoy Hariri had been riding in, had been removed before the proper forensic investigators began their inquiry. Other debris had been relocated and placed in the crater left by the bomb. “The crime scene was highly contaminated. Professor [Fouad Hussein] Ayoub was sent to collect human remains in order to conduct DNA analysis and tests, but this was four days after [the bombing]. “Ayoub clarified that the crime scene was not thoroughly searched and that he was able to notice the mismanagement,” Jad Khalil, co-counsel for Merhi’s defense, said. Ayoub, a forensic expert, was one of the first people to comb through the crime scene following the bombing, and testified for the prosecution. “Professor Ayoub said there was a bulldozer that might have moved some human remains. There were canines. There was water, fire, heat and pedestrians. All of these elements might have decomposed and obliterated these human remains.” The remnants of the suicide bomber, who drove a Mitsubishi Canter, could not be identified. The same was true of several other human remains found at the scene. According to forensic investigators, one of the unclaimed body parts belonged to a young man. The Merhi defense has held on to this ambiguity, arguing the possibility that it could have belonged to Abu Adass. Trial Chamber president Judge David Re interjected, asking the defense team to respond to previous witnesses who had said Abu Adass was unlikely to have been able to adeptly operate a truck in Beirut’s chaotic traffic. “He couldn’t ride a bicycle, let alone drive a car,” Re said, referencing a past testimony. Merhi’s defense team pressed that uncertainties created by the mismanagement of the crime scene posed pertinent questions as to Abu Adass’ whereabouts on Feb. 14. “For all these reasons, the chamber ... cannot rule out the fact that Abu Ahmad Adass did play a role in the assassination, and in this case, the prosecution has failed to prove the false nature of the claim of responsibility and all that derives from it.”