Suspects still absent in Hariri assassination case hearing
First international criminal trial without defendants since 1945
The Hezbollah defendants are still on the run and have never even spoken to their lawyers, but the special United Nations tribunal into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri starts its final phase this week.
Thirteen years after billionaire Hariri was killed by a huge suicide bomb in Beirut, the court in a suburb of The Hague will hear closing prosecution and defence arguments in the long-running case.
Four suspected members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah are on trial at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the shock attack, which also killed 21 other people and injured 226. Hezbollah has refused to turn over the four indicted men — Salim Ayyash, Hussain Oneissi, Assad Sabra and Hassan Habib Merhi — for the trial which began in January 2014.
But the tribunal is unique in international justice as it can try suspects in absentia, as well as for its ability to try accused perpetrators of an individual terrorist attack. It is the first time a trial has happened without the suspects in the dock since 1945, when an international criminal jurisdiction was created for the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War.
Closing arguments are due to run from tomorrow until September 21. Judges will not hand down a verdict until a later date, while any appeal could take even longer.
“It’s problematic, because for the general public, it is always bitter when you can’t put a face to violence,” said Thijs Bouwknegt, a lawyer specialising in international criminal law. “A court without defendants risks being a joke.”
Wave of demonstrations
The assassination of Hariri, who was Lebanon’s prime minister until his resignation in October 2004, was a pivotal moment in the country’s history. Fingers quickly pointed at Syria after the bomber detonated a van packed with tonnes of explosives next to Hariri’s armoured convoy on the Beirut seafront on Valentine’s Day in 2005.
The bombing triggered a wave of mass demonstrations that ended with the departure of Syrian forces from Lebanon after a 30-year presence, after which Hariri’s son Sa’ad became the premier.
But when the tribunal, which was set up in 2009, eventually handed down indictments, it named four alleged members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and the Syrian regime.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had previously dismissed the tribunal as a US-Israeli plot and vowed none of the defendants will ever be caught. None of them has ever had contact with their court-appointed defence lawyers.
Dov Jacobs, a professor of International Law, said the tribunal risked being “exclusively symbolic”.