BEIRUT: Information related to passport applications and telephone records were revised and entered into evidence by prosecution counsel at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in a short session Monday. The passport applications, according to the prosecution, were useful for bolstering their assertion that a particular cellphone number belonged to Hussein Hassan Oneissi, one of the accused in the case.
Cellphone records have been critical to the prosecution’s case against the five defendants. Tracking the movements of several groups of color coded cellphones has been used to showcase the alleged conspiracy that led to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The passport application discussed Monday belonged to Oneissi’s brother. The phone number on the application allegedly contacted the number linked to Oneissi several times.
“This fact assists in demonstrating the relationship of the third party contact [Oneissi’s brother] to the number that the prosecution alleges was used by Mr. Oneissi,” Prosecution Counsel Allison De Bruir said.
The prosecution put forward similar evidence related to Hassan Habib Merhi, another defendant. According to De Bruir, a set of Ogero telephone records also show several calls made to Merhi’s so-called “operational” phone by members of his family, demonstrating that it did in fact belong to Merhi.
Trial chamber President Judge David Re questioned why members of Merhi’s family would have been contacting him on a phone used to plan the operation. De Bruir explained that the so-called purple group of phones served a mixed purpose, unlike other networks.
“The prosecution alleges that the purple phone network was not exclusively closed, and was also used to contact family members, unlike the green or red phones, [which] only contacted a small group of numbers,” De Bruir said.
According to the prosecution, the purple phone network was used for a cover operation that included a video tape delivered to news agencies directly after the attack. It depicted a man named Ahmad Abu Adass claiming responsibility for the attack in the name of a group called “Al Nusra and Jihad in Greater Syria.”
The red phones were allegedly used by those who ultimately carried out the attack, while the green phones were used by those in command of the operation.
Cellphone records have been critical to the prosecution’s case against the five defendants. Tracking the movements of several groups of color coded cellphones has been used to showcase the alleged conspiracy that led to the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The passport application discussed Monday belonged to Oneissi’s brother. The phone number on the application allegedly contacted the number linked to Oneissi several times.
“This fact assists in demonstrating the relationship of the third party contact [Oneissi’s brother] to the number that the prosecution alleges was used by Mr. Oneissi,” Prosecution Counsel Allison De Bruir said.
The prosecution put forward similar evidence related to Hassan Habib Merhi, another defendant. According to De Bruir, a set of Ogero telephone records also show several calls made to Merhi’s so-called “operational” phone by members of his family, demonstrating that it did in fact belong to Merhi.
Trial chamber President Judge David Re questioned why members of Merhi’s family would have been contacting him on a phone used to plan the operation. De Bruir explained that the so-called purple group of phones served a mixed purpose, unlike other networks.
“The prosecution alleges that the purple phone network was not exclusively closed, and was also used to contact family members, unlike the green or red phones, [which] only contacted a small group of numbers,” De Bruir said.
According to the prosecution, the purple phone network was used for a cover operation that included a video tape delivered to news agencies directly after the attack. It depicted a man named Ahmad Abu Adass claiming responsibility for the attack in the name of a group called “Al Nusra and Jihad in Greater Syria.”
The red phones were allegedly used by those who ultimately carried out the attack, while the green phones were used by those in command of the operation.
Source & Link : The Daily Star
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