April 22, 2010 - Now Lebanon - KUNA: Ban notifies Security Council on panel to select STL judges

The Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported on Thursday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon notified the Security Council of his intent to appoint a commission tasked to select the judges for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The selection panel will hold its first meeting soon, Ban added.

UN Security Council Resolution 1757, which was issued in 2007, entitles Ban to appoint the STL’s judges upon the recommendation of the selection panel.

Ban notified the Security Council that he will appoint Judge Mohamed Amin al-Mahdi, an Egyptian national, and Judge Erik Mose, a Norwegian, as the two judges on the selection panel. He will also appoint Patricia O'Brien, UN Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs, as his representative in the commission as well as its legal counsel, the report added.

According to agency, Mahdi served as judge on the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia from 2001 to 2005 and as President of the Egyptian State Council and Head of the Supreme Administrative Court of Egypt.

Mose served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 1999 and as its President from 2003 to 2007. Prior to that appointment, he served as a judge on the Court of Appeals in Oslo and as a Supreme Court Advocate in the Norwegian Solicitor General's office.