Assassination of Rafic Hariri: the verdict of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon expected in The Hague

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The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is due to deliver its verdict this Tuesday, August 18 in The Hague, the Netherlands, fifteen years after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and 21 others in a car bomb attack in Beirut. None of the four accused having been arrested, they were tried in absentia. A fifth man, considered the “brains” of the operation, was killed in Syria in 2016.

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On February 14, 2005, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri, was killed along with 21 other people in the explosion of a van in Beirut. This Tuesday, August 18, 2020, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), created by the UN Security Council, will deliver its judgment. This should have been given on August 7, but the explosions that devastated the capital three days earlier prompted the STL to postpone it.

Four accused of the attack could not be arrested and are therefore tried in absentia, while a fifth died in Syria in 2016. All are considered by the Tribunal to be close to Hezbollah.

The STL is the only international tribunal dedicated to acts of terrorism, a detail which has been contested by the defense. Maître Antoine Kormaz was the lawyer, officially appointed, of Moustafa Badreddine, one of the accused in the assassination of Rafic Hariri. “  The Security Council relied on Chapter 7 to create this tribunal, when there was no threat or act of aggression. Chapter 7 can only be used in these cases. The assassination of a Prime Minister is a very serious act, condemnable of course, but which does not constitute a threat to international peace  , ”explains Antoine Kormaz.

The accused "members" of Hezbollah or simple "supporters"?

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon looked into the links between the defendants and the Shiite Hezbollah movement. But for Maître Antoine Korkmaz, “  the four defendants are considered supporters  ”. “  We never spoke of members of Hezbollah. There are no official qualifications as "members", "officers" or "active". They are 'supporters', like supporters of a football club  , ”he adds.

Moustafa Badreddine, considered by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to be the "mastermind" of the 2005 attack, died in Syria in 2016 under mysterious circumstances. The STL will rule this Tuesday, August 18 on the guilt of four of its alleged accomplices, still untraceable. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has previously warned that the pro-Iran Shiite movement will not recognize the verdict.

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