THE HAGUE (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
The tribunal created to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri opened its doors in The Hague Sunday with no indication of a first trial date.
The identities of the 11 judges, including four Lebanese, who have been nominated to work at the tribunal, are being kept under wraps for security reasons.
At a ceremony to inaugurate the tribunal, chief prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said it constituted the world's first anti-terrorist court.
"By the very nature of its mandate, the STL is the first international anti-terrorist tribunal," he told VIPs, diplomats and journalists.
Bellemare said he would apply to the Lebanese government within 60 days, as determined by the tribunal's rules, to have evidence and suspects transferred. Before this can happen, the tribunal's final rules of procedure and evidence had to be adopted by the judges, a process expected to take a few weeks.
Bellemare said the court was set up not to seek revenge, but "a justice that is humane, fair, transparent and credible. A justice that ensures that everybody is treated with dignity and respect."
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Handover of suspects " I have no reasons to believe that the Lebanese authorities will not respond in a timely fashion to the request " Daniel Bellemare, chief prosecutor Bellemare, a Canadian, earlier told Al Arabiya TV the opening of the court does not mean legal proceedings will start immediately and investigations will continue.
“I will move on the indictments when I am ready,” he said. “Unfortunately I cannot tell or predict when this will be but I can assure that you I will do everything possible to make sure that the investigation moves as quickly as possible."
Bellemare said he would ask Lebanon to transfer the generals held in connection with the case to the international tribunal, which is housed at the former headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service in the town of Leidschendam.
"All that I can tell you is that ... it (transfer request) will be made as soon as possible," he said in his first one-on-one TV interview in his role as Chief Investigator or Prosecutor. "I have no reasons to believe that the Lebanese authorities will not respond in a timely fashion to the request.”
The opening ceremony was held at a former gymnasium at the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, where a courtroom will be built by year-end.
The event started with a minute of silence for Hariri and the others who died with him in the 2005 Beirut bombing. |
Lebanese Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar during a press conference in Beirut In a press conference last week Lebanese Minister of Justice Ibrahim Najjar said that Lebanon will fully cooperate with the tribunal.
“There won’t be any indefinite or indeterminate detention,” said Bellemare. “So they will have their day in court and there will be light at the end of the tunnel.”
In Beirut, Lebanese leaders laid wreaths on the tombs of Rafiq Hariri and other leading figures killed in attacks since 2005 as part of a series of ceremonies to mark the establishment of the tribunal.
"Today the flag of justice for Lebanon is being raised in The Hague. It is a historic date. March 1 is the fruit of the efforts of all Lebanese people who supported the establishment of the court and who refused to yield to threats and terror," Saad Hariri, who is leader of the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament, said in a statement issued in Beirut. |
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Hezbollah demands release Lebanese ex-security chiefs Mustafa Hamdan (top-L), Jamil al-Sayed, Ali al-Hage, and Raymond Azar Meanwhile, the Lebanese Hezbollah group demanded on Saturday the freeing of the four generals.
Their continued detention "is for political reasons ... given that they have not even been questioned in three years," said a statement from the powerful opposition group. "That confirms the arbitrariness of their detention."
But investigating Judge Sakr Sakr rejected demands to free the generals on the grounds that the authorities had not completed their investigation, a source close to the case told AFP.
Last week he released three suspects, Lebanese brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed Abdel Aal and Syrian Ibrahim Jarjura, all civilians who were being held on suspicion of withholding information and misleading the probe into the assassination. |
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Getting underway Hariri and 22 other people were killed by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut that some Lebanese politicians, including his son Saad al-Hariri, have blamed on neighboring Syria.
German Detlev Mehlis, who preceded Bellemare as head of the international investigation, has previously said there was evidence implicating Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in Hariri's assassination.
Syria denied the allegation but the killing caused a worldwide outcry that forced it to end its military presence in Lebanon after 29 years. Investigators have yet to identify any suspects publicly. |
