Daily Star - Les Nations Unies achevent la formation du Tribunal Hariri

Daily Star - UN 'completes' formation of Hariri tribunal, April 01, 2008

UN Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel announced on Monday the complete formation of the International Tribunal tasked with prosecuting the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In an interview with the Saudi daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, Michel said the tribunal was composed of 11 judges, four of whom are Lebanese. The remaining seven members are international judges. "The selection committee decided to choose the best existing judges on the basis of their solid judicial experience," Michel said. Michel refused to disclose the nationalities of the international judges. He noted that significant non-judicial steps had been completed, such as the drafting of the procedural rules and evidence on which the tribunal will be based, in addition to the election of a head for the tribunal, and a judge responsible for appeals. The undersecretary confirmed that the court would "have teeth," meaning that the prosecutor would have the power to issue warrants for arrest. Michel said it was possible that some suspects were outside of Lebanon, in which case the countries "must cooperate with the tribunal, and on a voluntary basis, we hope." "It would be very difficult for any country to ignore cooperation," he added. In the event of non-cooperation, he said that "the international community would not remain helpless and inactive." Michel emphasized that the tribunal of would not be "a political tool in the hands of any party against another." A UN investigation commission said on Friday that a "criminal network" had carried out the 2005 assassination Hariri and was connected to other acts of political violence in Lebanon, but the commission's report did not identify anyone involved with the network. "The commission can now confirm, on the basis of available evidence, that a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination of Rafik Hariri and that this criminal network - the 'Hariri Network' - or parts thereof are linked to some of the other cases within the commission's mandate," said the 10th report issued by the International Independent Investigation Commission. The names of suspects, however, "will only appear in future indictments," and Friday's report gave no hint of when an indictment would be made. Hariri's February 14, 2005, killing led to the exit of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 29 years. Leading members of the governing coalition in Lebanon have long blamed Damascus for Hariri's killing and for the string of assassinations and attempts since, while the Syrian regime has denied any role and has said it will not allow its citizens to appear before the tribunal. Friday's report said Syria "has provided generally satisfactory cooperation" with the commission, headed since January 1 by Canada's Daniel Bellemare, who will also become the prosecutor of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The commission's first chief, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, had implicated the Syrian regime in the Hariri crime, but Bellemare's first report adopted the more careful style adopted by Mehlis' successor, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz.