[An Nahar] The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb probing the 2005 liquidation of ex-PM Rafik Hariri announced Tuesday that the in absentia trial of five Hizbullah...
Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as
The Resistanceand purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory...
operatives will continue "pending the receipt of further information from the government of Leb regarding the death of the Accused Mustafa Amine Badreddine."
In an oral decision issued Tuesday, the STL Trial Chamber said that "the Judges do not believe that sufficient evidence has yet been presented to convince them that the death of Mr. Badreddine has been proved."
The Trial Chamber also noted that "the Prosecution has outstanding requests for assistance sent to the government of Leb seeking further information relating to what happened to Mr. Badreddine and is awaiting responses."
The three judges who constitute the Trial Chamber made the decision by majority, with one dissenting opinion.
Hizbullah has announced that Badreddine was killed in Syria on May 11 when "artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
groups" targeted one of its positions near the Damascus international airport.
It did not name any specific group, and there has been no claim of responsibility.
Badreddine was on a U.S. terror sanctions blacklist, was a key suspect in Hariri's 2005 liquidation and was one of the "most wanted" by Israel.
Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...
has announced that Badreddine "was one of the first to join the resistance in its beginnings" to fight the Israeli occupation after it was founded in 1982 with help from Iran's Revolutionary Guard.