STL: Assignment of Defence Counsel for the Accused Salim Jamil Ayyash

On 5 February 2020, Trial Chamber II decided that Ayyash would be tried in absentia. The following day, the Pre-Trial Judge, Judge Daniel Fransen, requested the Head of Defence Office, Dorothée Le Fraper du Hellen, to assign Counsel to represent the interests and rights of the Accused, said STL in a press release.

The Head of Defence Office therefore assigned Emile Aoun, a lawyer at the Beirut Bar, as Lead Counsel and Anta Guissé, a lawyer at the Paris Bar, as Co-Counsel to defend the interests and rights of Salim Jamil Ayyash in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash (STL 18-10) in connection with the attacks against Marwan Hamade, George Hawi and Elias El-Murr.

The Head of Defence Office considered that it was in the best interests of the Accused that Emile Aoun, Lead Counsel in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash et al. (STL 11-01), should also represent the interests and rights of Ayyash in the present case (STL 18-10), as the case concerns the same Accused and in view of his in-depth knowledge of the procedures before the STL.

The Defence Office will provide all the legal, logistical and financial support necessary to the newly constituted Defence team to enable it to fulfil its Defence mandate.