BEIRUT: Defense counselors representing the interests of Assad Hassan Sabra, one of the defendants in the trial on the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri further cross-examined witness Alasdair Macleod at The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Thursday. The witness, an investigator in the Office of the Prosecutor, has worked on the case for almost a decade.
Macleod has appeared before the tribunal several times before, facing questions from defense counselors seeking to scrutinize the qualifications and experience of those involved in the early investigations.
Defense counselor Guénaël Mettraux pursued a line of questioning aiming to probe Macleod’s knowledge and memory of the interviews held with family members and associates of Ahmad Abu Adass, the man of Palestinian origin who appeared in a false claim of responsibility on behalf of a group called Nusra and Jihad in Greater Syria.
Mettraux narrowed in on the methods used to verify the information given in the statements taken by the investigation team Macleod was part of as well as the connection between Abu Adass and Khaled Taha, a Lebanese engineer who apparently manufactured electronic circuits for Al-Qaeda in Iraq and may have left the country with Abu Adass on Jan. 16.
Mettraux’s examination was met with minimal response from Macleod, a characteristic that has defined his time on the stand, and objections from Prosecutor Alexander Milne on the line of inquiry and some of the evidence put forward by Mettraux.
The tribunal resumes Friday morning where Mettraux will seek to complete his cross-examination of Macleod.
Source & Link : The Daily Star
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