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Public Transcript of the Hearing Held on 13 December 2017 in the Case

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Public Transcript of the Hearing Held on 13 December 2017 in the Case 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 1/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Procedural Matters (Open Session) Page 1 1 Special Tribunal for Lebanon 2 In the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash, Merhi, 3 Oneissi, and Sabra 4 STL-11-01 5 Presiding Judge David Re, Judge Janet Nosworthy, 6 Judge Micheline Braidy, Judge Walid Akoum, and 7 Judge Nicola Lettieri - [Trial Chamber] 8 Wednesday, 13 December 2017 - [Trial Hearing] 9 [Open Session] 10 --- Upon commencing at 10.10 a.m. 11 THE REGISTRAR: The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is sitting in an 12 open session in the case of the Prosecutor versus Ayyash, Merhi, Oneissi, 13 and Sabra, case number STL-11-01. 14 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Good morning. We're sitting today to 15 receive as much evidence as possible as remains in the Prosecution case. 16 So let's start with appearances, commencing with the Prosecution. 17 MR. MILNE: Good morning, Your Honours. Alexander Milne on 18 behalf of the Prosecution. I am joined today by my learned friend, 19 Mr. Marc Desalliers, and we are assisted by Ms. Tanja Zekaj. 20 MR. HAYNES: Good morning, Your Honour. Peter Haynes for the 21 participating victims, assisted by Kiat Wei Ng. 22 MR. HANNIS: Good morning, Your Honours. I am Tom Hannis, along 23 with Chad Mair and Jason Antley, representing the interests of 24 Salim Ayyash. 25 MR. AOUINI: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour, Wednesday, 13 December 2017 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 2/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Evidentiary Matters (Open Session) Page 2 1 honourable members of the Bench. I am Mohamed Aouini, representing the 2 interest of Mr. Hassan Habib Merhi, and I am assisted today by Mr. Hedi 3 Aouini. Thank you. 4 MR. HASSAN: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour, 5 honourable members of the Bench. I am Yasser Hassan representing the 6 interests of Mr. Oneissi, and I have with me Ms. Natalie von 7 Wistinghausen and Mr. Gyo Suzuki representing Mr. Oneissi as well. 8 Thank you. 9 MR. YOUNG: Your Honours, good morning. My name is David Young, 10 representing the interests of Assad Sabra, and I am assisted today by 11 Mr. Eric Tully. Thank you. 12 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: And I can see that there are also, it 13 appears, three representatives of the Defence Office in the courtroom. 14 Mr. Milne and Mr. Desalliers, you have evidence to present. 15 MR. MILNE: Your Honours, yes. We have a number of statements to 16 be admitted following decisions of the Trial Chamber, and I trust that 17 the Trial Chamber, as have the officers, received a schedule kindly 18 prepared by Ms. Zekaj, which sets out the items and proposes exhibit 19 numbers. 20 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Yes, thank you. 21 MR. MILNE: Your Honours, the first of the witness statements to 22 be admitted is in respect of person PRH680, and that is the late 23 Colonel Wissam El-Hassan. 24 There are a series of items, and I will, if I may, from time to 25 time pause and invite the formal addition of the exhibit numbers for Wednesday, 13 December 2017 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 3/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Evidentiary Matters (Open Session) Page 3 1 those. 2 The statement of Colonel Hassan has been admitted by the Trial 3 Chamber under Rule 158. And with the leave of the Court, I will simply 4 summarize, briefly, the nature of those interviews. 5 The originals are two audio-taped interviews which have been 6 transcribed, and I'm sure that the Trial Chamber will have seen that, in 7 fact, the nature of the transcript is both in English and in Arabic. In 8 brief terms, Colonel El-Hassan was interviewed by representatives of the 9 Office of the Prosecutor in June of 2012. At that time, his role was 10 that of the head of Bureau of Intelligence in the Information Bureau of 11 the ISF. 12 In the autumn of 2005 during the investigation into the 13 assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri, the ISF had discovered 14 that Network 2, as it was then known, comprised of 18 phone numbers, and 15 these were linked with a special subscriber feature called the VIP 16 option. 17 Further investigation indicated a possible link between that 18 phone network and Hezbollah, and therefore as a consequence, 19 Colonel El-Hassan arranged a formal meeting with officials from Hezbollah 20 on the subject of those phones. He described a series of four meetings 21 he attended with the Hezbollah secretary-general, Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, 22 which took place in September and October of 2005. 23 During these meetings, Colonel El-Hassan and Mr. Nasrallah 24 discussed Network 2, or as we now know it the Green Network. 25 Colonel El-Hassan, in meeting with Mr. Nasrallah, provided him with facts Wednesday, 13 December 2017 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 4/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Evidentiary Matters (Open Session) Page 4 1 regarding the administration of the Network 2 phones, and specifically 2 the payment of invoices, including the VIP option. And this led to a 3 second and third meeting on the subject. 4 At the third meeting, Mr. Nasrallah confirmed that Network 2 was 5 a Hezbollah network of phones. He explained that Hezbollah used 6 Network 2 to track Mossad agents operating in Lebanon. Mr. Nasrallah 7 provided the names and telephone numbers of the alleged Israeli agents to 8 Colonel El-Hassan. 9 The two interview summaries can please be given exhibit numbers. 10 The first of them has the audio ERN 60263704 to 60263704, with the 11 wording "final read" after it. And could that please become 12 Exhibit P02121. 13 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Yes, that will be Exhibit P2121. And for 14 completion, the date of that please, Mr. Milne. 15 MR. MILNE: That would have been the 16th of January -- I beg 16 your pardon, I think that was the 17th of January, 2012. 17 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: June, wasn't it? 18 MR. MILNE: June. Slip of the tongue. June 2012. 19 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: There were two, weren't there? There was 20 the 16th and 17th of June. 21 MR. MILNE: Yes, the numbering, in fact, is slightly in reverse 22 because the very similar number, ending 705, is the earlier one of the 23 two. It's simply they got reversed when being numbered. So that which 24 ends 704 is the second one, but could that please be Exhibit P2121. And 25 the exhibit 60263705 to the same number, again (final read), to be P2122. Wednesday, 13 December 2017 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 5/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Evidentiary Matters (Open Session) Page 5 1 Each of those, accompanied of course by the transcript, if 2 it's -- 3 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Yes, the transcript and audio of the 4 interview of Mr. Wissam El-Hassan, as described, will be Exhibit P2122. 5 And so the transcript was clear, was that for the 16th of June, 2012? 6 MR. MILNE: Yes. 7 That was accompanied by a formal witness acknowledgement. And 8 for completeness, we have included that. That is 60263708. And that, 9 please, to become Exhibit P2123. 10 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: And that is dated the 17th of June, 2012. 11 And that will be Exhibit P2123. 12 MR. MILNE: Now, following the meetings, the ISF analysed the 13 numbers provided by Mr. Nasrallah and found that three of the Network 2 14 phone numbers were very rarely active in the same area as the numbers 15 provided; that is, the target numbers. Mr. El-Hassan, Colonel El-Hassan, 16 retrieved a copy of that analysis of the three telephone numbers 17 allegedly attributed by Hezbollah to Mossad agents, and their co-location 18 with the Network 2 phone numbers, that is, with what we now know to be 19 Green 300 and Green 023. 20 That analysis is -- it has, for clarity, been known as WAH004. 21 Could that please become our Exhibit P02124. 22 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Yes, that will be Exhibit P2124. 23 MR. MILNE: And finally, we have the certification of the 24 authenticity of that report, which was a separate document. And perhaps 25 that could become Exhibit P2125. And the ERN for that: 60294239 to Wednesday, 13 December 2017 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20171213_STL-11-01_T_T414_OFF_PRV_EN 6/100 PUBLIC Official Transcript Evidentiary Matters (Open Session) Page 6 1 60294252. 2 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: All right. That will be Exhibit P2125. And 3 can you please place on the record the ERN for Exhibit P2124. 4 MR. MILNE: Your Honour, yes, I omitted to do so. I apologize. 5 The ERN for that, that is Exhibit P2124, is 60263777 through to 60263779. 6 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Exhibit P2125, according to the description 7 we have here in your schedule, the two documents are responses to request 8 for assistance the Prosecution sent to the -- I think it would be the 9 Lebanese prosecutor-general, and the responses are from the Lebanese 10 Internal Security Forces. 11 MR. MILNE: And they are intended simply to certify the 12 authenticity of the earlier report, which is 2124.
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