Daily Star - UN legal chief insists Special Tribunal is not open to compromises - Michel says witness protection program has been created, April 03, 2008
The United Nations' undersecretary general for legal affairs, Nicolas Michel, said on Wednesday that the UN General Secretariat had not tried to make any deals over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in an indirect response to remarks made by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem earlier this week. Moallem had said Monday that Syria had rejected offers to facilitate the election of a president in Lebanon in exchange for freezing or obstructing the funding of the tribunal. But Michel said that the court was not subject to compromise. "We have always said this is a matter that concerns Lebanon and the United Nations. It has nothing to do with us or with the crisis in Lebanon," Michel told LBC television. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has been established to try those suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005. Though many blame Syria for the assassination, Damascus has denied any involvement. "Our position on the tribunal is final, as the content of UN Security Council Resolution 1757, which declared the tribunal's establishment, falls under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and is mandatory," Michel said, adding that this makes it impossible for the tribunal to be subject to compromises. "There is no intention to politicize the tribunal," he said.
Michel said any state that refuses to cooperate with the tribunal will be "thus admitting that it has something to hide." He added that the UN and the former head of the investigation committee, Serge Brammertz, have established "a witness protection program," without giving further details. In reference to the four former security chiefs detained on suspicion of involvement in the killing, Michel said that the "Lebanese judicial authorities are the only authorities who are able to arrest the four generals, and they have all the required information in this regard." On Tuesday, detained former head of the General Security Jamil Sayyed demanded that he be "immediately released," and accused state Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and Investigative Magistrate Saqr Saqr of "resigning to political influences." In a related development, Zahle's parliamentary bloc, the Popular Bloc, said Wednesday that the ongoing provisional detention of the four former generals "without a trial is a violation of Lebanese laws and the penal code." "This makes those who arrested them subject to public opinion and judicial accountability," it said in a statement. "The Lebanese state and the judges who committed this violation also bear responsibility." The statement also said that no one can "predict the objectives of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon or interpret the relevant international resolutions." Meanwhile, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported on Wednesday that former President Emile Lahoud, former Prime Minister Omar Karami and former Interior Minister and Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh would be among the Lebanese officials to be summoned as witnesses by the tribunal. Al-Rai, citing an unidentified "prominent Arab source," said that former Cabinet ministers Wiam Wahab and Talal Arslan and MP Nasser Qandil would also be summoned as witnesses. The source did not rule out the possibility that Moallem could also be called into the international tribunal. The UN investigation commission said on Friday that a "criminal network" had carried out the 2005 assassination of 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," it said. Friday's report gave no hint of when an indictment would be made.
According to the report, 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. Bellemare said the commission would continue to dig into the nature of the "Hariri network" and pursue further DNA testing to identify the suicide bomber believed to have set off the truck bomb with an estimated 1,000 kilograms of explosives in Beirut, killing Hariri and 22 others. The network behind the attack existed before Hariri's killing, conducted surveillance of the five-time prime minister, was "operative" on the day of his killing and has persisted in operating since the assassination, Bellemare's report said. The investigation's next steps will be to gather evidence about the members of the network, their links outside the network and their roles in later attacks. The team is investigating 20 other attacks.
The United Nations' undersecretary general for legal affairs, Nicolas Michel, said on Wednesday that the UN General Secretariat had not tried to make any deals over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in an indirect response to remarks made by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem earlier this week. Moallem had said Monday that Syria had rejected offers to facilitate the election of a president in Lebanon in exchange for freezing or obstructing the funding of the tribunal. But Michel said that the court was not subject to compromise. "We have always said this is a matter that concerns Lebanon and the United Nations. It has nothing to do with us or with the crisis in Lebanon," Michel told LBC television. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has been established to try those suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005. Though many blame Syria for the assassination, Damascus has denied any involvement. "Our position on the tribunal is final, as the content of UN Security Council Resolution 1757, which declared the tribunal's establishment, falls under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and is mandatory," Michel said, adding that this makes it impossible for the tribunal to be subject to compromises. "There is no intention to politicize the tribunal," he said.
Michel said any state that refuses to cooperate with the tribunal will be "thus admitting that it has something to hide." He added that the UN and the former head of the investigation committee, Serge Brammertz, have established "a witness protection program," without giving further details. In reference to the four former security chiefs detained on suspicion of involvement in the killing, Michel said that the "Lebanese judicial authorities are the only authorities who are able to arrest the four generals, and they have all the required information in this regard." On Tuesday, detained former head of the General Security Jamil Sayyed demanded that he be "immediately released," and accused state Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and Investigative Magistrate Saqr Saqr of "resigning to political influences." In a related development, Zahle's parliamentary bloc, the Popular Bloc, said Wednesday that the ongoing provisional detention of the four former generals "without a trial is a violation of Lebanese laws and the penal code." "This makes those who arrested them subject to public opinion and judicial accountability," it said in a statement. "The Lebanese state and the judges who committed this violation also bear responsibility." The statement also said that no one can "predict the objectives of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon or interpret the relevant international resolutions." Meanwhile, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported on Wednesday that former President Emile Lahoud, former Prime Minister Omar Karami and former Interior Minister and Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh would be among the Lebanese officials to be summoned as witnesses by the tribunal. Al-Rai, citing an unidentified "prominent Arab source," said that former Cabinet ministers Wiam Wahab and Talal Arslan and MP Nasser Qandil would also be summoned as witnesses. The source did not rule out the possibility that Moallem could also be called into the international tribunal. The UN investigation commission said on Friday that a "criminal network" had carried out the 2005 assassination of 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," it said. Friday's report gave no hint of when an indictment would be made.
According to the report, 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. Bellemare said the commission would continue to dig into the nature of the "Hariri network" and pursue further DNA testing to identify the suicide bomber believed to have set off the truck bomb with an estimated 1,000 kilograms of explosives in Beirut, killing Hariri and 22 others. The network behind the attack existed before Hariri's killing, conducted surveillance of the five-time prime minister, was "operative" on the day of his killing and has persisted in operating since the assassination, Bellemare's report said. The investigation's next steps will be to gather evidence about the members of the network, their links outside the network and their roles in later attacks. The team is investigating 20 other attacks.
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