Prosecutors claimed to have identified one of the “key players” and leaders of the cell that assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as the trial of five members of Hezbollah accused of complicity in the infamous bombing resumed Wednesday.

Senior prosecution counsel Graham Cameron described Hassan Habib Merhi, the last suspect to have been indicted by the court, as one of the “key players” in the assassination team that had reached an agreement to assassinate Hariri in the weeks leading up to the Valentine’s Day 2005 bombing that killed him and 21 others and plunged Lebanon into political turmoil.

Cameron painted a picture of an intricate and finely tuned conspiracy that was so complex it needed a clear hierarchy and division of labor, with top Hezbollah operative Mustafa Badreddine the alleged apex of the plot. [Link]