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

August 10, 2010 - ILoubnan - Hezbollah's Hariri accusations are 'ridiculous', Israel says

Israel on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" Hezbollah claims to have acquired Israeli footage implicating the Jewish state in the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese Shiite militia group, on Monday unveiled footage allegedly intercepted from Israeli surveillance planes of the site where Hariri was killed in a bombing in February 2005. "Everyone in the world knows, even the Lebanese, that Nasrallah's accusations are ridiculous," said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

It was clear that the accusations were "coming from the pressure on (Nasrallah) over the international community's suspicions about Hezbollah's involvement in Hariri's murder," he said. Several undated clips, which were broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, showed aerial views of the coastline off mainly Sunni west Beirut on various dates before the Hariri assassination.

"Such footage generally comes as the first leg of the execution of an operation," Nasrallah said, while admitting the images were not conclusive. Nasrallah, who has accused Israel of the bombing on February 14, 2005 which killed Hariri and 22 others, said the footage was intercepted from Israeli
surveillance aircraft.

Hezbollah is facing increasing pressure as a UN tribunal looking into the assassination appears set to indict several members of the Shiite militia. Any indictment is likely to be made by the end of the year.
The Hariri assassination triggered an international outcry and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005 after a deployment of almost three decades.

The murder has been widely blamed on Syria but Damascus has consistently denied involvement.

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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