STL Prosecution: Ayyash Didn't Go to Hajj, Abu Adas wasn't Interested in Jihad
The Prosecution of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon continued on Thursday its closing arguments before the court in The Hague.
The arguments focused on the claim that the Accused Salim Ayyash had postponed his Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia to prepare for the 2005 attack and on the issue of the Palestinian young man Ahmed Abu Adas, who was allegedly abducted by two Hizbullah suspects from Beirut's Tariq al-Jedideh area to appear in the video of the false claim of responsibility.
The Prosecution noted that Ayyash's special Hajj passport was used by someone else, pointing out that the possibility of forgery was high at the time seeing as information used to be written by hand and not printed.
Noting that Ayyash's alleged cellphones were active before, during and after the 2005 Hajj period, indicating that he stayed in Lebanon, the Prosecution added that the man's wife traveled without him to Saudi Arabia.
“Ayyash, who accompanied his wife to the airport on January 15 (2005), remained in contact with her from Lebanon during the Hajj period,” the Prosecution said, according to an Arabic translation carried by the National News Agency.
“On January 28, exhibits indicate that Ayyash's personal phone was separated from the group of his cellphones to go to the airport for two hours before re-joining Ayyash's group. This was the only time when his personal cellphone was active away from the group of his other cellphones,” the Prosecution added.
It noted that Ayyash used his personal phone 44 times to call Saudi Arabia during his wife's presence in the kingdom.
Claiming that Ayyash was the “only user” of the operation cellphones and the personal cellphones, the Prosecution said it was unlikely that any of his family members could have been the person calling Saudi Arabia, arguing that “his personal cellphone was not separated from his group of cellphones during the Hajj period.”
Most importantly, the Prosecution said Ayyash continued his work at the civil defense center in the southern town of Doueir during the Hajj period.
The Prosecution also tackled the issue of Abu Adas' disappearance, noting that the Accused Assad Sabra and Hussein Oneissi were involved in the “abduction.”
“Oneissi claimed that his name was Mohammed and that he had converted from Christianity, asking Abu Adas whom he met at the Arab University's mosque to teach him prayer,” the Prosecution said.
“The so-called Mohammed was actually the Accused Oneissi, who called Abu Adas' family and told them that he left for Iraq after abducting him,” the Prosecution added.
Refuting exhibits, testimonies and documents from the Defense, the Prosecution said the Defense's arguments were full of mistakes and that Abu Adas did not leave with someone called Khaled Taha and “was not interested in jihad.”
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