July 31, 2009 - Daily Star - Lebanon selects deputy prosecutor for Special Tribunal

Identity of citizen to be kept secret for now

By Michael Bergman
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Lebanon has chosen the deputy prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, although authorities will not reveal the individual?s name until early next week for security reasons, sources at the Justice Ministry and the tribunal told The Daily Star on Thursday.
The Lebanese citizen will move to the tribunal?s headquarters in a suburb of Holland?s The Hague as soon as possible, while tribunal prosecutor Daniel Bellemare remains home in Canada receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed illness, said tribunal acting registrar Herman von Hebel. The tribunal was created by the UN Security Council in May 2007 and was officially established on March 1 this year, in order to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as well as suspects in related political violence.
Bellemare, who previously headed the international commission investigating Hariri?s killing, has not fixed a date for his return, which depends entirely on his health, von Hebel added. Bellemare?s absence and the lack of the Lebanese deputy prosecutor have not adversely affected the course of the investigation, which Bellemare has supervised from Canada, von Hebel said.
?All work is going on as scheduled,? von Hebel said in his first interview as the tribunal?s acting registrar.
The tribunal recently received approval from its management committee to hire some 30 to 40 more staff for the prosecutor?s office, which employs the majority of the court?s staff of roughly 180 people, he said.
?We are intensifying our recruitment, in particular for investigators for the prosecutor?s office,? he added. ?For the time being, the focus is really on the investigative side.?
Tribunal officials have never commented on the status of the investigation, but no one is in custody in connection with any of the incidents under the tribunal?s jurisdiction, which stretches from the October 2004 assassination attempt on former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh to the January 2008 killing of Internal Security Forces Captain Wissam Eid.
The tribunal, meanwhile, is proceeding with plans to finish by February 2010 the construction of a courtroom to try prospective defendants, von Hebel said. Demolition has begun of the gymnasium in the former Dutch intelligence building which houses the tribunal, and construction of the courtroom in that space should commence soon, he added. The building project includes a public viewing area, a media center for journalists and a holding area for defendants, von Hebel said.
?The expectation is that by the end of January we will have a courtroom,? he said, adding that equipment testing would occupy the first part of next February. ?I?m quite confident that we are very much on track.?
UN officials continue raising funds for the tribunal?s $65 million budget for 2010, 49 percent of which will come from the Lebanese state, as stipulated in the tribunal?s charter, von Hebel said. The tribunal has received more than $10 million in pledges for next year, led by a $6-million pledge from the US. The registrar said he expected other members of the court?s management committee ? which includes the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands ? each to contribute at least $1 million.
?We are quite confident that we will have sufficient funds available next year,? said von Hebel, adding that this tribunal differed from his previous post as registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he witnessed an annual challenge to raise contributions. ?The financial condition of this court is much sounder than what I was used to.?
Von Hebel, a Dutch lawyer who also spent five years with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), is serving as acting registrar between the July 1 departure of former registrar Robin Vincent and the August 26 arrival of new registrar David Tolbert. Von Hebel, who also helped with the establishment of the International Criminal Court during his 10 years at the Dutch Foreign Ministry, will stay on at the tribunal as deputy registrar after the arrival of Tolbert, an American who also worked at the ICTY and served as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon?s special expert on
UN assistance to the Special Tribunal for Cambodia.