More than 60 people have applied to participate as victims before the STL in the case of Ayyash et al., announced the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in a statement.
“A deadline for their applications had been set by Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen on 8 September and expired on October 31,” it added.
“The applicants are members of various Lebanese communities and include persons who suffered different kinds of harm as a result of the February 14, 2005” assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, it continued.
These and other victims have been met by the STL's Victims' Participation Unit, which has a mandate to inform victims about their rights before the tribunal, and to help them apply for participation if they wish to do so, the statement explained.
The victims' applications will now be translated and then provided to Fransen, who will decide on each individual application for participation and issue a decision in due course.
This process might be expected to take up to several months, it added.
“According to the pre-trial judge’s order, victims who did not apply by the deadline might still be permitted to participate if they can show valid reasons in order to justify the late submission of their application,” it concluded.
Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra are wanted for the February 2005 suicide car bomb attack in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber.
Ayyash has been named in the indictment as coordinator of the assassination team.
The court on August 17 unsealed the indictment against the four suspects and has said Lebanon must try harder to apprehend them.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said he doubted the four indictees will ever be found and has branded the tribunal a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy aimed at bringing down the party.
He also ruled out that Hizbullah will support the funding of the STL, stating that if the cabinet failed to reach consensus on the matter, then it should be submitted to vote at the parliament.
Ayyash and Badreddine face five charges including that of "committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device" and homicide, while Oneissi and Sabra faced charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.
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