The daily Star - Review of tribunal indictment to take longer than expected - March 05, 2011

By Mirella Hodeib
Daily Star staff
Saturday, March 05, 2011

BEIRUT: The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) said that the review of the court’s indictment might take longer than expected, while fervently defending the U.N.-backed body against accusations of being politicized.

“Through credible, fair and unbiased action, the tribunal thus aims at contributing to reconciliation in Lebanon,” Italian judge Antonio Cassese wrote in his second annual report on the STL, which reviews the work achieved during 2010-11 in the controversial court.

The Netherlands-based STL, established in 2007 to probe the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, has been at the heart of political tension between Lebanon’s rival March 8 and March 14 camps.

The indictment, which remains confidential pending review from the pre-trial judge, is widely expected to implicate some Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination, raising fears of sectarian strife.

In his report, Cassese argued that the STL was an “impartial” judicial institution established to punish culprits in the Hariri assassination, which was a “violent” crime that bore consequences on Lebanese society.

“If justice does not step in to show that an impartial public institution can punish the culprits and reintroduce respect for legal imperatives, problems are left festering,” he said. “Sooner or later violence will resurface.”

While Cassese said he was fully aware that the confirmation and eventual publication of indictments may have significant repercussions in Lebanon, he rejected the dichotomy often described of “peace vs. justice,” describing it as “fallacious.”

“It follows, among other things, that any outbreak of violence spawned by steps undertaken by the judicial process will not be brought about by individuals keen to pursue justice, but only by individuals who oppose both justice and peace,” he wrote.

Cassese described 2010-11 as a “momentous year” for the STL, citing the submission on Jan. 17 of the first indictment by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen as “a highly significant” event that marked the start of the judicial phase of the STL’s life.

But the Italian magistrate said the review of the indictment may take longer than originally planned.

“In practice this means that the review of the indictment may take a little longer than we had originally hoped, but the pre-trial judge and his staff are working as expeditiously as possible, whilst ensuring that this is a fair and just process,” he wrote.

The head of STL said achievements were made by the office of the prosecutor despite the hostile rhetoric against the court, which escalated into clear intimidation and physical violence during the reporting period. He was referring to an attack on STL investigators and their interpreter in October 2010 during a visit to a gynecologist’s clinic in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.