Special tribunal for Lebanon

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Special tribunal for Lebanon

United Nations flag

Office building of the special tribunal for Lebanon
English name Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)
French name Tribunal Special pour le Liban (TSL)
Arabic name المحكمة الدولية الخاصة بلبنان
Organization type Ad hoc criminal court
Seat of the organs Leidschendam-Voorburg , Netherlands
Chair Ivana Hrdličková ( Czech Republic )
www.stl-tsl.org

The special tribunal for Lebanon ( French Tribunal Spécial pour le Liban (TSL), English Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Arabic المحكمة الدولية الخاصة بلبنان) is an ad hoc criminal court of the United Nations , in particular to investigate the attack on the vehicle convoy of the former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri on February 14, 2005, in which he and 22 other people were killed, and to investigate the perpetrators and those behind them condemn. In contrast to the UN war crimes tribunals , Lebanese law is not applied, but rather international law . The possibility of imposing the death penalty and being sentenced to forced labor are excluded.

It was not only for security reasons that Leidschendam-Voorburg near The Hague , the Netherlands, was chosen as the seat of the tribunal . The Tribunal's facilities are located in the former building of the Algemene Inlichtingen- en Veiligheidsdienst (AIVD), the Dutch domestic intelligence service .

background

On February 14, 2005, the former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri was killed by a car bomb on a truck of Japanese origin in Beirut . 22 other people also fell victim to the attack , including Economics Minister Bassel Fleihan . A large number of passers-by were injured.

International investigations

FitzGerald

Shortly after the attack, the United Nations Security Council ordered the UN Secretary-General to investigate the crime. He sent the Irish Police Commissioner Peter FitzGerald to Lebanon for this purpose. The FitzGerald report named after him was referred to the UN Security Council on March 24, 2005. The report criticized the local police investigations and alleged Syria to be involved in the crime. He concluded by stating that only an independent international investigation could determine the true circumstances of the attack.

The UNIIIC

With Resolution 1595 of the UN Security Council of April 7, 2005, the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission ( UNIIIC ) was founded. She conducted further investigations into this case under the direction of the German Chief Public Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis . The results of the Commission's investigation were published in the so-called Mehlis report .

On December 15, 2005, Mehlis announced his withdrawal from UNIIIC and the management of the investigations was transferred to the Belgian Serge Brammertz . He resigned from his position on December 31, 2007 because of his appeal as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia . On November 14, 2007, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed the Canadian Daniel Bellemare as successor to the UIIIC and at the same time as Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal.

UNIIIC published ten investigation reports from October 2005 to March 2008.

mandate

On December 13, 2005, the Lebanese government asked the United Nations to set up a special international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the attack on al-Hariri.

Such a tribunal was established by an agreement between the United Nations and the Lebanese Republic. Under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations , the UN Security Council approved the agreement on May 30, 2007 with Resolution 1757 . The resolution also contained the statutes of the special tribunal, which came into force on June 10, 2007.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch demanded that the tribunal should also be given jurisdiction over 14 other attacks that have been committed in Lebanon since October 1, 2004.

The agreement between Lebanon and the United Nations actually provides that the jurisdiction of the court can be extended beyond the attack of February 14, 2005, if the court were to find that further attacks were carried out between October 1, 2004 and December 12, 2005. December 2005 were connected to the assassination attempt on al-Hariri, for example through motive , perpetrator or modus operandi . However, the inclusion of subsequent crimes investigated by the United Nations special investigators in the proceedings before the special tribunal requires the explicit consent of the Lebanese government and the United Nations Security Council.

It is the first time that a United Nations tribunal has brought criminal proceedings into a terrorist attack on an individual. The special tribunal will be a hybrid criminal court, similar to the special tribunal for Sierra Leone and the Khmer Rouge tribunal , but the court will not apply international law, instead Article 2 of the tribunal's statutes stipulates that Lebanese law applies.

Court organization

The court consists of four organs, namely the tribunal, the prosecution, the registry and an office to support the defense.

Arbitration body

There are a total of three types of panels. Specifically, these are the international pre-trial judge , the trial chamber and the appeals chamber . The trial chamber consists of three judges, a Lebanese judge and two international judges, the appeals chamber consists of two Lebanese and three international judges.

Antonio Cassese (Italy) was appointed as the first chairman of the court on March 24, 2009 and Daniel Fransen (Belgium) was appointed investigating judge. Antonio Cassese resigned from his position as Chairman in October 2011, and was succeeded by David Baragwanath (New Zealand).

Accuser

The prosecutor is appointed by the UN Secretary General after consulting the Lebanese government. The Secretary General is advised on the selection by a committee consisting of two active or former judges of international courts and a representative of the Secretary General. The prosecutor serves three years and may be re-elected once. The Deputy Prosecutor is appointed by the Lebanese government.

Norman Farrell (Canada) became a Prosecutor on March 12, 2012.

Office

The office under the direction of the registrar ( Registrar ) organizes the daily work of the court. The Chancellor has a term of three years and can be re-elected once.

Daryl A. Mundis (USA) has been Chancellor since July 2013.

Accuse

At the suggestion of UNIIIC, four (former) pro-Syrian security chiefs were arrested by a Lebanese investigating magistrate in August 2005 because of the risk of escape. They were Raymond Azar (former General of the Army Intelligence Service), Mustafa Hamdan (Commander of the Presidential Guard), Ali al-Hajj (former Police Chief) and Jamil Sayyed (former General of the Lebanese Security Service).

On April 29, 2009, Judge Daniel Fransen ( Pre-Trial Judge ) decided, at the request of the Chief Prosecutor, that the suspects held in Roumieh Prison (Lebanon) should be released immediately due to a lack of evidence. After examining the investigative material brought by UNIIIC and the prosecution itself, as well as the documentation submitted by the Lebanese investigative authorities on April 10, 2009, the chief prosecutor determined that there was insufficient evidence to bring an indictment.

judgment

On August 18, 2020, the volatile Lebanese Salim Jamil Ajjash was found guilty. The sentence is still to be determined. Three other defendants were acquitted.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Leon Goldberg: Netherlands Close to Agreeing to Host the Hariri Tribunal ( English ) UN Dispatch. November 16, 2007. Archived from the original on November 6, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 1, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.undispatch.com
  2. ↑ The Fitzgerald Report ( Memento of the original from November 9, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (UN website) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / domino.un.org
  3. ^ The New York Times : UN Cites Syria as Factor in Lebanese Assassination , March 25, 2005 (accessed March 3, 2009).
  4. ↑ http://www.un.org/Depts/german/sr/sr_04-05/sr1595.pdf Resolution 1595 (2005) of April 7, 2005, Situation in the Middle East.
  5. ↑ Dossier ( Memento of the original of February 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from Al-Ahram on the Mehlis Report (accessed March 3, 2009). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / weekly.ahram.org.eg
  6. ↑ MBan Ki-moon: Letter dated November 12, 2007 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council ( English ) United Nations Security Council. November 14, 2007. Accessed on March 3, 2009.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / daccessdds.un.org  
  7. ↑ List of all investigation reports (English) under TRIAL, Documents. Retrieved on May 4, 2009 ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.trial-ch.org
  8. ↑ Security Council votes to establish Hariri assassination tribunal (English) , UN News Center. May 30, 2007. Retrieved March 1, 2009. 
  9. ↑ Human Rights Watch: Establishing the Hariri Tribunal (English) . May 30, 2006. Retrieved December 7, 2008. 
  10. ^ Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( English ) United Nations . Retrieved March 1, 2009.
  11. ↑ Kim Ghattas: Lebanon's groundbreaking tribunal (English) , BBC News. May 21, 2006. Retrieved March 1, 2009. 
  12. ↑ UN-backed tribunal for Lebanon killings swears in officials, adopts rules. In: UN News Center. March 25, 2009, Retrieved May 4, 2009 .
  13. ↑ 'Spiegel Online from September 3, 2005: Arrest warrants and new evidence in the Hariri murder case
  14. ↑ Markus Bickel, FAZ.net of April 30, 2009 (accessed on May 1, 2009): Hariri-Mord. Hezbollah triumphs.
  15. ^ STL of April 29, 2009 (press release). Order of the Pre-Trial Judge regarding the release of the four generals.
  16. ↑ tagesschau.de: Hariri assassination: alleged Hezbollah member guilty. Retrieved August 18, 2020 .

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