BEIRUT: Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) President Antonio Cassese has said he and Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare are responsible for deciding the timing of the release of the indictment, according to news reports over the weekend.
“Some states can hope for certain action but we are fully independent and completely free and it is not them who decide but it is up to the judge in cooperation with the prosecutor,” Cassese said when asked about US pressure to speed up the release of the indictment.
Cassese told French paper Le Monde in remarks published over the weekend that the indictment was most likely to be made public rather than kept secret.
He described Hizbullah’s boycott of the UN-backed tribunal as a dangerous precedent in an attempt to obstruct the STL’s work.
Hizbullah has condemned the STL as an US-Israeli plot and vowed to “cut the hands” of those who attempt to arrest its fighters, whom the party says the indictment is set to implicate in the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005.
Cassese said he would file a report on the issue to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who would then decide how to approach the Security Council.
“It is the first time that there is an important attempt to obstruct the work of an international tribunal, attempts that oppose the interest of the Lebanese and delay our work to reach the truth,” he said in reference to Hizbullah’s call on Lebanese officials and people to cease cooperation with the STL.
“It is the first time that there is an important attempt to obstruct the work of an international tribunal, attempts that oppose the interest of the Lebanese and delay our work to reach the truth,” he said in reference to Hizbullah’s call on Lebanese officials and people to cease cooperation with the STL.
“The Lebanese Cabinet promised to continue cooperation and I will prepare a detailed report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who will decide how the Security Council will act but I believe that he [Ban] already knows that it is a dangerous precedent,” Cassese said.
Security Council intervention was more a case of moral support for the court than a politicization attempt, he added.
“We are honored that we have moral and political support from several weighing states without tying our work to preconditions,” Cassese said commenting on French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s remarks that international justice would progress despite any difficulties. –The Daily Star
No comments:
Post a Comment