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Public Transcript of the Hearing Held on 20 January 2015 in the Case Of 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 1/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Procedural Matters (Open Session) Page 1 1 Special Tribunal for Lebanon 2 In the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash, Badreddine, 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 Tuesday, 20 January 2015 - [Trial Hearing] 9 [Open Session] 10 --- Upon commencing at 10.06 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, Badreddine, 13 Merhi, Oneissi, and Sabra, case number STL-11-01. 14 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Good morning. We're sitting today to 15 continue with the evidence of Dr. Khoury. Before we start, can I please 16 ask for appearances from the parties, starting with the Prosecutor. Good 17 morning, Mr. Cameron. 18 MR. CAMERON: Good morning, Your Honour. It's Graeme Cameron for 19 the Prosecution, assisted by Skye Winner. 20 MR. HAYNES: Good morning, Your Honour. Peter Haynes for the 21 participating victims, together with Tamara Kosic. 22 MR. AOUN: Mr. President, Your Honours, good morning. Good 23 morning, everyone. For today myself, Emile Aoun, and I represent the 24 interests of Mr. Salim Ayyash. Thank you. 25 MR. EDWARDS: Good morning, Your Honours. Iain Edwards Tuesday, 20 January 2015 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 2/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Procedural Matters (Open Session) Page 2 1 representing the interests of Mustafa Badreddine, assisted by Uzay Aysev 2 and for the first time joining us Mr. Gyo Suzuki. 3 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: I'd like to welcome you to the proceedings, 4 Mr. Suzuki, and we welcome you back too, Mr. Edwards. 5 MR. EDWARDS: Thank you. 6 MR. LAROCHELLE: [Interpretation] Your Honours, 7 Philippe Larochelle for the Oneissi Defence. 8 MR. ROBERTS: Good morning, Your Honours. Geoff Roberts on 9 behalf of Mr. Assad Sabra. 10 MR. AOUINI: [Interpretation] Good morning, Your Honour, 11 honourable Judges. I am Mohamed Aouini. I represent the interests of 12 Mr. Hassan Habib Merhi. I am assisted today by Mr. Jad Khalil and 13 Mr. Hedi Aouini. Thank you. 14 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: And good morning to you too, Mr. Aouini. 15 And I note there are two representatives of the Defence Office seated in 16 the court as well. 17 Mr. Cameron, where are we up to with Dr. Khoury's evidence? Can 18 you just give us a road map, if you can, as to how much further you have 19 to go with him. 20 MR. CAMERON: We've reached the end of January in terms of 21 chronology and I expect to ask Dr. Khoury a number of questions about the 22 remaining days in February leading up to the assassination of the 23 Prime Minister, including what he was doing that day. And I expect that 24 I will have comfortably completed my questions of Dr. Khoury prior to the 25 lunch break, if not before. Tuesday, 20 January 2015 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 3/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Witness: Ghattas El-Khoury –PRH242 (Resumed) (Open Session) Page 3 Examination by Mr. Cameron (Continued) 1 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Thank you for that, Mr. Cameron. 2 Dr. Khoury, thank you for making yourself available at such short 3 notice to continue with your evidence today after we didn't complete you 4 on Friday. As I think you anticipate, from what you've just heard from 5 Mr. Cameron, we'll be properly finished with you, with your evidence I 6 mean, today. 7 So please continue with your questioning, Mr. Cameron. 8 MR. CAMERON: Thank you. 9 WITNESS: GHATTAS EL-KHOURY [Resumed] 10 [Witness answered through interpreter] 11 Examination by Mr. Cameron: [Continued] 12 Q. Good morning, Dr. Khoury. Dr. Khoury, when we finished on Friday 13 we had been dealing with the events of the 29th of January, when you had 14 taken that trip to the Prime Minister's new villa in Naameh with 15 Bassel Fuleihan. And at some point you had advised the Prime Minister, 16 as I understand your testimony, that the discussions that you had had 17 with various members of the Bristol Group had led you to the position 18 that the -- it would be a stumbling block, if I can put it that way, to 19 the formation of a united opposition if the Prime Minister had what 20 you've referred to as deposits or pro-Syrian candidates not of his choice 21 on his electoral list. Have I summarized that fairly? 22 A. Yes, that is correct, and that is why we discussed the content of 23 our talks and discussions with the opposition. 24 Q. And if I understand it, as we left off, in answer to your 25 concerns about the position of the senior members of the Bristol Group Tuesday, 20 January 2015 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 4/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Witness: Ghattas El-Khoury –PRH242 (Resumed) (Open Session) Page 4 Examination by Mr. Cameron (Continued) 1 and the fact that they wanted confirmation and some degree of certainty 2 that there would be no pro-Syrian or deposit candidates on the 3 Prime Minister's list, he indicated to you that he would inform the 4 candidates that were presently on his list that they would no longer be 5 on his list. And you were surprised with the speed at which he made the 6 decision, but you also discovered or learned that he was a few steps 7 ahead of you and had already considered such -- that position favourably. 8 Is that a fair assessment of what you told us on Friday? 9 A. That is correct, and I think that he had taken this decision at a 10 personal level. 11 Q. What do you mean "at a personal level"? 12 A. I did not say "at the personal level." I said that Premier 13 Hariri had thought about this and had taken a decision prior to our 14 discussion. Maybe the translation was not accurate. 15 Q. He had already reached this decision in any event; is that what 16 you're saying? 17 A. Yes. 18 Q. And did there come a point when the gist of that decision began 19 to leak out into the public realm? 20 A. This was published on the following day, I mean on the day 21 following his decision. The headlines of An-Nahar newspaper and other 22 newspapers had mentioned this. I don't know what was the source of their 23 information, but one of the headlines was that Premier Hariri had handed 24 over the deposit. 25 MR. CAMERON: If I could ask that a document be shown to the Tuesday, 20 January 2015 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 5/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Witness: Ghattas El-Khoury –PRH242 (Resumed) (Open Session) Page 5 Examination by Mr. Cameron (Continued) 1 witness which appears at positions 17 in the Arabic version and 18 of the 2 English version. 3 This was a document which is similar to the last document that 4 was entered in evidence, P366. P366 and this document were not on the 5 Rule 91 list of the Prosecution but were recently provided to the 6 Prosecution by Dr. Khoury on the 6th of January, 2015, and they were 7 disclosed to my friends six days later on the 12th of January, 2015. And 8 the document is indeed a newspaper article from An-Nahar newspaper 9 provided to us by Dr. Khoury with the following heading: "How will the 10 new balances in the Parliament bring out the bill?" And second: 11 "Hariri's ambition is to close Beirut in the face of the Authority and 12 Damascus." 13 So I would request that it be permitted to be shown to the 14 witness and that you consider receiving it in evidence after he's ... 15 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Do Defence counsel take the same position 16 they took in relation to the last exhibit, P366? 17 MR. EDWARDS: Yes, indeed. 18 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Thank you for your co-operation, except, 19 Mr. Edwards, in not waiting until the translation and the transcript has 20 finished. First intervention for the year. So yes, that will be 21 received into evidence as Exhibit P367 -- 22 MR. CAMERON: Sorry -- 23 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: The ERN of that was 60302905 -- 24 MR. CAMERON: I'm sorry, this is entirely my fault. It should be 25 P368. 366 was the last of this kind of exhibit and then we had 367 which Tuesday, 20 January 2015 STL-11-01 Interpretation serves to facilitate communication. Only the original speech is authentic. 20150120_STL-11-01_T_T109_OFF_PUB_EN 6/86 PUBLIC Official Transcript Witness: Ghattas El-Khoury –PRH242 (Resumed) (Open Session) Page 6 Examination by Mr. Cameron (Continued) 1 was something else again. 2 PRESIDING JUDGE RE: Oh, no, that was my error, Mr. Cameron. I 3 read numerically on an exhibit list I have in front of me. It will be 4 P368 -- let me just go back to the ERN: 60302905 through to 60302906. 5 That's the English translation.
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