14 Years After Hariri’s Assassination, STL Consolidates Concept of Justice

File photo: A billboard of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. (photo credit: REUTERS)
File photo: A billboard of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. (photo credit: REUTERS)
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14 Years After Hariri’s Assassination, STL Consolidates Concept of Justice

File photo: A billboard of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. (photo credit: REUTERS)
File photo: A billboard of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is displayed along a street in Beirut. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Since the end of trials in absentia of the four Hezbollah security cadres accused of plotting and executing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005, judges of the Trial Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), presided by Judge David Re, are working to issue the verdict by the beginning of summer.
 
But this has not dispelled the concerns of the majority of Lebanese, who are eager for justice and questioning the reasons behind the delay in the verdict more than five months after the end of trials.

Several observers have expressed understanding for such fears based on previous experiences and failures to uncover the truth behind political assassinations that occurred during and after Lebanon's civil war, mainly due to the control of the de facto forces, whether through foreign tutelage or partisan influence.
 
However, sources monitoring the STL progress predicted that “verdicts in the Hariri assassination case would be issued early next summer, in three or four months at the latest.”

“The causes of delay are justified, due to the presence of more than 6 million papers and documents that are now being examined, scrutinized and abbreviated,” the sources explained.

They added that the task is carried out by legal assistants, currently working on sorting and classifying the papers since the end of the trials under the supervision of the Trial Chamber judges.

These documents constitute scientific and technical evidence, expert reports, witness statements and others, according to the sources, who also noted that the final verdict would come in up to 1,000 pages, and in three languages - Arabic, English and French.
 
The verdict is expected to be issued in absentia against Hezbollah members Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra. On July 11, 2016, the Appeals Chamber ordered the termination of the proceedings against Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who has been killed in Damascus.
 
According to former Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, the tribunal gave the defense team all the legal and moral guarantees.

Najjar said: “The STL system is far more sophisticated than that of other international courts… I am satisfied that this tribunal met the Lebanese people’s expectations.”
 
As for the political criticism directed at the STL by those affected by it, namely Hezbollah and its allies, the former minister did not express surprise at such accusations “because the assassination of [former] Prime Minister Rafik Hariri resulted in political repercussions at the internal and regional levels, which led the UN Security Council to approve the establishment of the tribunal under Article VII of the UN Charter.”



EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
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EU Urges Immediate Halt to Israel-Hezbollah War

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, left, meets with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, right, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. (AP)

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into Israel.  

The Israeli military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into Israel during the day. Some of them were intercepted but others caused damage to houses in central Israel, according to AFP images.  

A day after the health ministry said Israeli strikes on Beirut and across Lebanon killed 84 people, state media reported two strikes on Sunday on the capital's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Israel's military said it had attacked "headquarters" of the group "hidden within civilian structures" in south Beirut.

War between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in late September, nearly a year after the group began launching strikes in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas following that group's October 7 attack on Israel.

The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September.  

On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.  

Earlier this week, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said in Lebanon that a truce deal was "within our grasp" and then headed to Israel for talks with officials there.  

In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hezbollah.

"We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," Borrell said.  

"Lebanon is on the brink of collapse", he warned.  

Under Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces present in the southern border area.  

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, and reiterated earlier calls for "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon."