The UN-backed tribunal set up to try the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri on 2 August set a provisional January start date for the trial. “The pre-trial Judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon today issued an order setting 13 January 2014 as a new tentative date for the start of the trial,” the court said in a statement. Four members of Hezbollah are facing trial in absentia for the devastating 2005 Beirut seafront bombing that killed billionaire Hariri and 22 others, including a suicide bomber.
The court, based in The Hague, said that the start date for the much-delayed trial “could change based on judicial developments”. The trial was due to start last March but was postponed after defence lawyers said that prosecutors had not yet given them all the relevant information to prepare their cases. “Most of these issues have since been addressed,” the court said. The defence has accused Lebanese authorities of not cooperating with them and complained that documents are not translated quickly enough from Arabic.