Beirut (AsiaNews) – A reconstruction of the killing of Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005 was carried out on Tuesday at a French military camp in Captieux, about 100 kilometres south of Bordeaux, in the Gironde region. The date was kept secret for security reasons. The few journalists who got wind of it were kept far from the location. The controlled explosion was conducted at 17:00 (GMT + 2:00). More than 300 police agents were deployed around the camp, and about a 100 international experts were present, Le Figaro newspaper reported.
Sections of the road travelled by Rafik Hariri were reconstructed. For this purpose, earth from Beirut was brought in to ensure the simulation was as close to what happened as possible, Le Figaro writes on its website.
Tuesday’s reconstruction “involved replicating an explosion in order to carry out forensic tests,” the Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced in a communiqué issued in The Hague.
This development comes at a time when a major confrontation is underway between Hizbollah, which might find itself among the accused according to news reports in Der Spiegel and Le Figaro, and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is under intense pressure to disavow the tribunal even before charges are formally laid. The Islamist party and its allies are claiming that unless this is done a conflict between Shia and Sunni could exploded in the country and spread to other countries of the region.
Hizbollah has called on the international tribunal to look into the possibility that the assassination of Rafik Hariri was orchestrated by Israel. To this effect, it has submitted some documents, including satellite images.