- LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands: Judges at a UN-backed court set up to prosecute the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri are holding a sitting to determine whether to stage a trial in absentia for four Hezbollah members indicted in the assassination.
The suspects were indicted earlier this year by prosecutors at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, but Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah has refused to arrest them and send them for trial in the Netherlands.
Hezbollah denies involvement in the Feb. 14, 2005, truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber, in Beirut.
Prosecutors are expected to tell judges Friday it is too early to hold a trial in absentia and that Lebanese authorities should have more time to arrest the suspects.