Members of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Office of the Prosecutor are wrapping up their investigation and will write an indictment in the “not too-far-away future.” (AFP Photo/Pool/Valerie Kuypers)
The question came up over and over and over again.
“What about the ‘false witnesses?’”
By the end, the answer came couched in exasperation.
“You need to understand, the STL is not the triple ‘IC,’” Refik Hodzic, a Bosnian journalist who has worked as a consultant with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, said passionately, seemingly at the edge of frustration, referring to the court and the UN International Independent Investigation Committee which preceded it.
“Judge the credibility of the STL based on the indictment” and the evidence on which it’s based, Hodzic implored a crowd of Beirut-based journalists.
Over the course of three days last week, the STL and the Foreign Press Association in the Netherlands hosted the 18 – mostly Lebanese – reporters to introduce them to the STL and other international courts. At points during the three-day event, several of the journalists and court staff seemed to be speaking an entirely different language, both literally and figuratively.
Part of the opposition’s strategy to undermine the international court involves “false witnesses,” and Lebanese journalists visiting the STL as part of a media forum it helped organize last week pressed court officials on how the tribunal will – and how the Lebanese judiciary should – deal with these individuals.
The court was not keen to answer. At one point, a question about what Lebanon should do about the “false witnesses” prompted a representative from the court – speaking during sessions that were supposed to be off-the-record – to reply, “I hope you don’t seriously expect me to answer that.” The tribunal is not interested in Lebanese political and judicial maneuvers, we were told.
According to the STL, there is not yet even an issue to discuss. Until a trial starts – which can only happen once the indictment is written and approved by a pre-trial judge – the STL argues there are no witnesses yet. A witness is someone who testifies before the court and, as opposed to being “true” or “false,” the tribunal prefers to speak of those testifying being either reliable or unreliable.
In Beirut, the “false witnesses” every politician is talking about are people who lied to both Lebanese investigators and the UN IIIC in the first few years after the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others. Their argument is that the STL will base its indictment on these unreliable testimonies and therefore should be viewed as illegitimate.
Representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) – who are currently investigating murders and are getting closer and closer to issuing an indictment – were clearly trying hard to dispel this notion without directly commenting on the investigation or the upcoming indictment.
Whether or not they’ll succeed, the OTP seems to be looking for a slam dunk. An OTP staffer said they want an indictment that presents “reasonable grounds for conviction” and revealed that the indictment will be submitted to a pre-trial judge for review in the “not too-far-away future.”
“The OTP will not rely on any evidence, regardless of origin or source, that it does not find to be reliable and credible,” the OTP told NOW Lebanon in an e-mail message after the media forum.
While some in Lebanon may view them as flunkies in some US/Zionist conspiracy to undermine Lebanon, the people working at the STL take themselves and their work seriously. As is common international practice, staffers in the Office of the Prosecutor simply refused to answer questions about the ongoing investigation.
What was in the briefcase stolen late last month from STL investigators, and are you worried if what was inside becomes public, the investigation could be compromised? No comment.
Has the court put Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq – who allegedly lied to the UN IIIC, which had him detained in October 2005 – into its witness protection program, a claim he himself has made? No comment.
Did the STL get secret intelligence information from Israel? No comment.
On that last question, a journalist from an opposition media outlet was vexed by the STL’s silence. Why, he later asked me over a cigarette, would the court not flatly deny it was taking intelligence from the Jewish state? It would help the court’s credibility in Lebanon to debunk Hezbollah’s other argument that an indictment will likely also include doctored evidence from Israel, he said.
Be that as it may, the court would not play ball.
“As with any criminal investigation, be it international or domestic, it is essential to preserve the confidentiality of the investigation to allow the investigators to work free from any interference. The principle of confidentiality is fundamental to the rule of law and is intended to ensure the effectiveness of the investigation and to protect the rights of all concerned individuals, including witnesses and suspects,” the OTP told NOW Lebanon in an e-mail message.
On the last day of the media forum, Kerstin Schweighofer, a veteran reporter who’s covered several tribunals and who is president of the Foreign Press Association in the Netherlands, spoke of journalists’ frustrations as the investigation continues.
“You just don’t get anything from the prosecutor until there’s an indictment,” she said. “You learn you just have to sit and wait.”
“What about the ‘false witnesses?’”
By the end, the answer came couched in exasperation.
“You need to understand, the STL is not the triple ‘IC,’” Refik Hodzic, a Bosnian journalist who has worked as a consultant with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, said passionately, seemingly at the edge of frustration, referring to the court and the UN International Independent Investigation Committee which preceded it.
“Judge the credibility of the STL based on the indictment” and the evidence on which it’s based, Hodzic implored a crowd of Beirut-based journalists.
Over the course of three days last week, the STL and the Foreign Press Association in the Netherlands hosted the 18 – mostly Lebanese – reporters to introduce them to the STL and other international courts. At points during the three-day event, several of the journalists and court staff seemed to be speaking an entirely different language, both literally and figuratively.
Part of the opposition’s strategy to undermine the international court involves “false witnesses,” and Lebanese journalists visiting the STL as part of a media forum it helped organize last week pressed court officials on how the tribunal will – and how the Lebanese judiciary should – deal with these individuals.
The court was not keen to answer. At one point, a question about what Lebanon should do about the “false witnesses” prompted a representative from the court – speaking during sessions that were supposed to be off-the-record – to reply, “I hope you don’t seriously expect me to answer that.” The tribunal is not interested in Lebanese political and judicial maneuvers, we were told.
According to the STL, there is not yet even an issue to discuss. Until a trial starts – which can only happen once the indictment is written and approved by a pre-trial judge – the STL argues there are no witnesses yet. A witness is someone who testifies before the court and, as opposed to being “true” or “false,” the tribunal prefers to speak of those testifying being either reliable or unreliable.
In Beirut, the “false witnesses” every politician is talking about are people who lied to both Lebanese investigators and the UN IIIC in the first few years after the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others. Their argument is that the STL will base its indictment on these unreliable testimonies and therefore should be viewed as illegitimate.
Representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) – who are currently investigating murders and are getting closer and closer to issuing an indictment – were clearly trying hard to dispel this notion without directly commenting on the investigation or the upcoming indictment.
Whether or not they’ll succeed, the OTP seems to be looking for a slam dunk. An OTP staffer said they want an indictment that presents “reasonable grounds for conviction” and revealed that the indictment will be submitted to a pre-trial judge for review in the “not too-far-away future.”
“The OTP will not rely on any evidence, regardless of origin or source, that it does not find to be reliable and credible,” the OTP told NOW Lebanon in an e-mail message after the media forum.
While some in Lebanon may view them as flunkies in some US/Zionist conspiracy to undermine Lebanon, the people working at the STL take themselves and their work seriously. As is common international practice, staffers in the Office of the Prosecutor simply refused to answer questions about the ongoing investigation.
What was in the briefcase stolen late last month from STL investigators, and are you worried if what was inside becomes public, the investigation could be compromised? No comment.
Has the court put Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq – who allegedly lied to the UN IIIC, which had him detained in October 2005 – into its witness protection program, a claim he himself has made? No comment.
Did the STL get secret intelligence information from Israel? No comment.
On that last question, a journalist from an opposition media outlet was vexed by the STL’s silence. Why, he later asked me over a cigarette, would the court not flatly deny it was taking intelligence from the Jewish state? It would help the court’s credibility in Lebanon to debunk Hezbollah’s other argument that an indictment will likely also include doctored evidence from Israel, he said.
Be that as it may, the court would not play ball.
“As with any criminal investigation, be it international or domestic, it is essential to preserve the confidentiality of the investigation to allow the investigators to work free from any interference. The principle of confidentiality is fundamental to the rule of law and is intended to ensure the effectiveness of the investigation and to protect the rights of all concerned individuals, including witnesses and suspects,” the OTP told NOW Lebanon in an e-mail message.
On the last day of the media forum, Kerstin Schweighofer, a veteran reporter who’s covered several tribunals and who is president of the Foreign Press Association in the Netherlands, spoke of journalists’ frustrations as the investigation continues.
“You just don’t get anything from the prosecutor until there’s an indictment,” she said. “You learn you just have to sit and wait.”
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