The defense team of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon questioned whether a part of a report presented by expert witness John Edward Philips was relevant to the case Thursday. Defense counsel Eugene O’Sullivan representing Salim Jamil Ayyash, and Iain Edwards, representing Mustafa Amine Badreddine, objected to a series of slides from a PowerPoint presentation delivered by Philips, arguing they bore no relevance to the current stage of the proceedings. His testimony is meant to shed light on the cellular system used during the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The defense argued portions of his report touched on matters to be dealt with at a later stage of the trial.
The defense counsel also said the slides were not included in the presentation the prosecution had given them. “My submission is it’s not appropriate for Mr. Philips to give this evidence at all,” Edwards said.
After the court recess, the two parties agreed on the part of the testimony that was relevant for analytical purposes and informed the court chamber, at which point Philips resumed his testimony.
Philips is an expert in the area of cell-site analysis specialized in analyzing data generated by 2G GSM systems in the U.K. His testimony builds on that provided by other expert witnesses last month about how the prosecution assembled call sequence records.
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