This blog of the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH) aims at granting the public opinion access to all information related to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon : daily press review in english, french and arabic ; UN documents, etc...

Ce blog du
Centre Libanais des droits humains (CLDH) a pour objectif de rendre accessible à l'opinion publique toute l'information relative au Tribunal Spécial pour le Liban : revue de presse quotidienne en anglais, francais et arabe ; documents onusiens ; rapports, etc...
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PRESS REVIEW

Naharnet - Four Generals Bound for The Hague? Maybe Not…, October 30, 2008

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar denied he has told a magazine that the four former security chiefs detained for alleged involvement in the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri will be transferred to the headquarters of the international tribunal in The Hague."I find the report about the issue of the international court and the four generals strange….I never said anything about the international tribunal because the court has not been set up yet…the judges are still not known and the issue is in the hands of the judiciary," Najjar, who is in Paris, told As Safir daily.He also stressed that he never said the four generals would be transferred abroad because he doesn't know the details of the investigation.Najjar added that "the issue of the generals' transfer to The Hague or any other place is under the jurisdiction of the Lebanese judiciary which has the final say on the subject."Najjar's comments came after he was quoted as telling As-Sayyad magazine that the tribunal will kick off its work in March and that the four generals will be taken to The Hague for trial.The daily ad-Diyar reported last week that chief U.N. investigator Daniel Bellemare requested an international jet between Dec. 5-20 under the protection of both police and Lebanese army troops for the ex-security chiefs' transfer.The four generals are Jamil Sayyed, Ali Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan who respectively headed the General Security Department, the Internal Security Forces, Military Intelligence and the Presidential Guards Brigade.Al-Mustaqbal daily on Thursday quoted legal sources as saying that major witnesses in the case have already been transferred to the Netherlands after the witness protection program was almost complete.They said the names of the witnesses will not be released until General Prosecutor Bellemare issues his final verdict on the case and after Lebanese and international authorities take necessary measures to transfer the families of the witnesses out of Lebanon or their countries of residence.Lebanese judicial sources involved in the investigations into the Hariri assassination and related crimes told al-Mustaqbal that the judiciary is almost ready to hand over the cases to Bellemare as soon as he assumes his duties as general prosecutor early next year.International sources, however, told As Safir daily that "no one except U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon knows when the international court will start functioning."They told As Safir that the court couldn't begin operations beginning 2009 because Ban wants to make sure that the court is able to cover its expenses for the coming three years and because of several measures to protect the witnesses.Sources following up the case also told As Safir that the U.N. chose the four Lebanese judges from a 12-member list after undergoing training in Switzerland.

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Background - خلفية

On 13 December 2005 the Government of the Lebanese Republic requested the UN to establish a tribunal of an international character to try all those who are alleged responsible for the attack of 14 february 2005 that killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others. The United Nations and the Lebanese Republic consequently negotiated an agreement on the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Liens - Links - مواقع ذات صلة

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, David Schenker , March 30, 2010 . Beirut Spring: The Hariri Tribunal Goes Hunting for Hizballah


Frederic Megret, McGill University, 2008. A special tribunal for Lebanon: the UN Security Council and the emancipation of International Criminal Justice


International Center for Transitional Justice Handbook on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, April 10, 2008


United Nations
Conférence de presse de Nicolas Michel, 19 Sept 2007
Conférence de presse de Nicolas Michel, 27 Mars 2008


Département d'Etat américain
* 2009 Human Rights report
* 2008 Human Rights report
* 2007 Human Rights report
* 2006 Human Rights report
* 2005 Human Rights report



ICG - International Crisis Group
The Hariri Tribunal: Separate the Political and the Judicial, 19 July, 2007. [Fr]


HCSS - Hague Centre for strategic studies
Hariri, Homicide and the Hague


Human Rights Watch
* Hariri Tribunal can restore faith in law, 11 may 2006
* Letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, april 27, 2006


Amnesty International
* STL insufficient without wider action to combat impunity
* Liban : le Tribunal de tous les dangers, mai 2007
* Jeu de mecano


Courrier de l'ACAT - Wadih Al Asmar
Le Tribunal spécial pour le Liban : entre espoir et inquiétude


Georges Corm
La justice penale internationale pour le Liban : bienfait ou malediction?


Nadim Shedadi and Elizabeth Wilmshurt, Chatham House
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon : the UN on Trial?, July 2007


Issam Michael Saliba, Law Library of Congress
International Tribunals, National Crimes and the Hariri Assassination : a novel development in International Criminal Law, June 2007


Mona Yacoubian, Council on Foreign Relations
Linkages between Special UN Tribunal, Lebanon, and Syria, June 1, 2007