BEIRUT: The following is a timeline of significant events in the life of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Feb. 14, 2005: A car bomb explodes in Downtown Beirut, killing statesman Rafik Hariri and 22 others. The blast is initially blamed on Damascus, prompting demonstrations which later lead to Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
Apr. 7: The United Nations establishes its International Independent Investigation Commission after concluding that the Lebanese investigation into the assassination was seriously flawed.
Aug. 30: Four pro-Syrian generals are arrested in connection with the crime. They are held without charge for almost four years before being released.
Oct. 13: Ghazi Kanaan, the Syrian Interior Minister, commits suicide. It had been alleged Kanaan was involved in Hariri’s killing.
Oct. 19: The UNIIIC files its first report, in which chief investigator Detlev Mehlis submits “there is converging evidence pointing at both Lebanese and Syrian involvement in this terrorist act.”
May 30, 2007: The U.N. Security Council endorses an agreement between New York and Beirut to establish the STL. Its mandate, and Lebanon’s commitments to the tribunal, is spelled out in Resolution 1757. According to the agreement, Lebanon must pay 49 percent of the court’s annual running costs.
Feb. 25, 2009: Three suspects linked to investigations by Lebanese authorities are released from prison. Lebanese brothers Mahmood and Ahmad Abd al-Aal and Syrian national Ibrahim Jarjoura do not have charges against them dropped.
Mar. 1: The STL officially commences operations. Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s first official action is to release the four generals. The men are not pardoned, but deemed instead to be “not of interest” to investigators.
Mar. 23: German newspaper Der Speigel, quoting sources close to the investigation, reports that data collected by the UNIIIC implicates Hezbollah in Hariri’s assassination.
July 22, 2010: Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah says that party members will be accused of the crime.
Aug. 9: Nasrallah accuses Israel of killing Hariri, claiming he has video evidence that the Israelis tracked the former prime minister and his movements prior to his assassination
Sept. 6: Prime Minister Saad Hariri says he was wrong to accuse Syria of killing his father, labeling the charge a “political allegation.”
Oct. 27: Two court officials are attacked by a crowd of women in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The pair have a briefcase containing documents taken from them after asking a doctor’s clinic to provide numbers of more than a dozen individuals. Nasrallah responds to the incident by calling for a nationwide STL boycott, labeling it an attack on the resistance.
Jan. 12, 2011: March 8 ministers leave Saad Hariri’s Cabinet and the government falls. Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati is chosen to form a new government.
Jan. 17: Bellemare issues a copy of his indictment to the court.
June 13: Mikati finally forms a government after months of wrangling. Its policy statement stops short of promising explicitly to support the tribunal.
June 30: Bellemare files an indictment to authorities in Beirut accusing four Hezbollah members of involvement in the assassination.
July 1: The suspects are named as Salim Jamil Ayyash, Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra. Nasrallah responds in a televised speech, vowing that the men will not be arrested “even in 300 years.”
July 13: Interpol issues international arrest warrants against the four suspects pursuant to a request issued by Bellemare.
Aug. 17: Bellemare discloses the contents of his indictment. The document details cell phone data alleging that Hariri’s assassins tracked the five-time premier for several months before blowing him up.
Aug. 18: Then-STL President Antonio Cassese slams Lebanon’s attempts at arresting the suspects, labeling operations by security personnel as “not sufficient.”
Aug. 19: The court announces it is also investigating files in the cases of slain Communist Party leader George Hawi, former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade and former Deputy Prime Minister Elias Murr.
Sept. 19: Mikati goes to New York to take part in U.N. Security Council sessions as part of Lebanon’s month-long presidency without agreement in the Cabinet over the country’s 2011 financial contribution to the STL. Lebanon is warned it could face international sanctions if it fails to agree to fund the court.
Oct. 21: Cassese, who had resigned due to health reasons, passes away and is replaced by New Zealand jurist Sir David Baragwanath.
Nov. 11: The STL Trial Chamber holds the court’s highest profile session to date, during which defense and prosecution counsels debate the merits of in absentia proceedings. The court rules that in absentia trials are premature.
Nov. 23: Baragwanath conducts his first official visit to Lebanon.
Nov. 30: An 11th hour agreement is reached to provide the STL with over $30 million in funding due for 2011.
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