April 4, 2009 - Daily Star - Vincent hopes to reveal judges identities soon

BEIRUT: Even though four Lebanese judges were sworn in last month at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the court still cannot release their names because of concerns for their security, tribunal registrar Robin Vincent told The Daily Star on Friday.
The tribunal announced on March 24 that Antonio Cassese, an Italian, had taken his oath as president of the tribunal's judges, while Belgium's Daniel Fransen had been sworn in as the court's pre-trial judge. The Lebanese judges - among them the tribunal's vice president as required by the court's statutes - were sworn in with the seven international jurists, but their identities remain a secret.
The court released Cassese's and Fransen's names because security measures had been taken in their home countries, but the names of the Lebanese judges will come out only when the judges say the security precautions here are sufficient, Vincent said.
"I need confirmation from the judges themselves that the security precautions are in place and working," the registrar said. "I need to be satisfied that ... [the Lebanese judges] are happy with the arrangements."
As evidence of the tenuous security situation here, unknown assailants shot the unoccupied cars of two Lebanese judges' on March 25. Judges Talal Baydoun and Mirna Wanssa, members of the state Shura council, own the vehicles, and Baydoun said it was the second time his car had been shot.
Vincent said he hoped to uncover the Lebanese judges' identities soon and that the Lebanese vice president of the court would take office in the tribunal's headquarters in Holland's The Hague "sooner rather than later." Cassese will arrive full-time in The Hague on April 14, earlier than previous proposals for him to move to Holland at the beginning of May, Vincent added.
Lebanon's Justice Ministry, meanwhile, will meet the deadline to transfer to the tribunal all Lebanese material on the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as well as the names of those detained in connection with the killing, said a ministry official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Lebanese authorities have to submit the necessary information within 14 days after the March 31 receipt of the tribunal's order, as written in the tribunal's rules of evidence and procedure.
This issue continues to receive significant coverage in domestic media because of the ongoing detention of four former security chiefs in connection with Hariri's assassination. Lawyers for the four have long blasted the four generals' incarceration without being charged as a legal travesty. Former head of the presidential guard General Mustafa Hamdan, former General Security director General Jamil Sayyed, former domestic security chief General Ali Hajj and military intelligence chief General Raymond Azar were taken into custody in 2005 on suspicion of premeditated murder, attempted premeditated murder and carrying out terrorist acts.
However, once Lebanon hands over the names of the four generals to the court, tribunal officials do not have any deadlines to ask either for the generals' release or their transfer to The Hague, according to the tribunal's statutes.
Once tribunal prosecutor Daniel Bellemare received the names of the detainees, he will recommend "as soon as practicable" to the pre-trial judge either to free the individuals or continue their detention at the tribunal, the statutes say.
Once Fransen has Bellemare's recommendations, the judge "shall decide within a reasonable time" whether to follow the prosecutor's advice, the statutes say. Fransen does not have to decide the detainees' fate according to the prosecutors' wishes, while the Lebanese authorities must carry out the court's order.
Bellemare, for his part, intends to provide his recommendations on the four generals as soon as possible, said Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office.
"My boss is going to be doing things as expeditiously as possible," Achouri said. "The intention is not to delay." As an example of Bellemare's desire to move the tribunal proceedings along as fast as possible, Achouri said the prosecutor had sent Fransen the request for Lebanese authorities to transfer evidence on the morning after the regulations that made the request possible went into effect.
At the same time, Bellemare's office is continuing its investigation into the Hariri killing and the other acts of political violence that fall under its mandate, Achouri added. The investigation has "gathered a lot of momentum" because of the influx of new staff since the tribunal opened officially on March 1, she said.
Two of three new employees per day have been starting work in the prosecutor's office, and the investigation team has about 80 percent of the staff it requires, Achouri said.
In all, the tribunal has hired 110 people, while awaiting response from another 42 individuals who have received offers, Vincent said. The $51 million budget for the tribunal's first year includes funds to hire 305 employees, but Vincent said it was "unlikely" he the tribunal would grow that large this year, because he would wait to bring on some staff until judicial proceedings would provide work for them.
Despite the ongoing media fanfare surrounding the tribunal's activity, a number of insiders in the international justice community have said that any potential verdicts remain years away. Anyone indicted by the tribunal, regardless of nationality, will certainly raise legal challenges to the tribunal's legitimacy in advance of any potential trials, lawyers have said. Defendants will question the circumstances of the tribunal's founding, the Security Council's authority connected with court and the Lebanese Parliament's failure to approve the bilateral treaty establishing the tribunal, the legal insiders added. In addition, political analysts have said that the emerging rapprochement between Syria and its former Western and Arab rivals could well affect the ultimate impact of the tribunal and its potential verdicts.