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The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Truth, Justice Or Accountability? THE MIDDLE EAST, BETTER EXPLAINED The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Truth, Justice or Accountability? THE MIDDLE EAST, BETTER EXPLAINED The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Truth, Justice or Accountability? Olga Kavran is a fellow and PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Founding Director of IUSTICOM, the first NGO specifically dedicated to communicating justice. From 2010-2020, she was the Head of Outreach and Legacy at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Nadim Shehadi is the executive director of the LAU Headquarters and Academic Center in New York and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House in London. INTRODUCTION up an investigative commission to assist ixteen years ago, on Valentine’s the Lebanese authorities in investigating Day 2005, a massive car bomb these crimes.4 By the end of the year, the exploded outside Beirut’s St. Lebanese demanded more assistance from Georges Hotel, killing Lebanon’s the international community in obtaining former prime minister Rafik justice and accountability, and requested SHariri and 21 other people. Another 269 the establishment of an internationalized people suffered life-altering physical and tribunal. psychological injuries, and the entire Despite vocal opposition from the-then country was traumatized.1 Before the Bei- minority pro-Syrian “March 8 Alliance,” the rut port blast of Aug. 4, 2020,2 this was the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), based biggest explosion to hit a country that had in Leidschendam in the Netherlands, began experienced 15 years of civil war. work four years after the assassination.5 Thus began the STL’s battle for legitimacy and In the aftermath of the assassination, the recognition. Cedar Revolution brought over a million In the years since the issuance of UN people onto the streets, leading ultimately Security Council Resolution 1757 which to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from established the STL, those opposed to the Lebanon after nearly 30 years. Whether tribunal have gone to great lengths to prevent intended or not, Hariri’s assassination it fulfilling its mandate,6 including attacking brought an end to Pax Syriana.3 its investigators and attempting to intimidate However, Hariri’s murder was not the witnesses.7 Many, only assassination to have been committed In January 2008, a car bomb killed Wissam however, had in that year — over a dozen other critics or Eid, the Lebanese investigator who is widely little idea as to opponents of Syrian domination had been credited with major breakthroughs in the the tribunal’s attacked or killed in 2004 and 2005. technical aspects of the investigation into the actual The international community reacted, as 2004-2005 terrorist attacks, and in October findings it often does, by issuing a number of UN 2012 another car bomb killed Wissam and chose to Security Council resolutions and setting Al-Hassan, head of Lebanon’s internal ignore them intelligence agency, who had led the initial Former PM Rafik international tribunal with jurisdiction over Hariri was a very well investigation into the assassination of Hariri.8 protected man with terrorism and the first to conduct trials in Ultimately, its opponents failed in both private security the absence of the accused (but with the and that provided by undermining the work of the STL but the state of Lebanon. participation of counsel appointed to conduct succeeded in damaging its reputation among (FILE/Getty Images) their defense.) For the first time in the region, the Lebanese. Through sustained media the tribunal introduced the principle of campaigns the tribunal was portrayed as accountability for political crimes, which “an American-Zionist” plot against the today is needed more than ever. “Resistance” on the one hand and, on the Despite tough initial negotiations at other, as ineffective because it neither the UN Security Council, a number of prosecuted nor convicted Hezbollah or states cooperated with the Independent Syria.9 International Investigation Commission So, when the tribunal issued its judgment which preceded the STL, and 29 countries on Aug. 18, 2020, convicting Hezbollah voluntarily contributed to the tribunal’s member Salim Jamil Ayyash but acquitting funding. his three co-defendants, some celebrated At the local level in Lebanon, the STL did the “exoneration,” while most decided the deliver a significant part of “the truth” that process had failed because it “convicted only people had sought after the assassination of one person.” Many, however, had little idea as Hariri. However, due primarily to unrealistic to the tribunal’s actual findings and chose to expectations and the lack of consensus on the ignore them. objectives of truth, justice and accountability, STL’s critics in Lebanon claim that the THE STL DID tribunal delivered too little too late and at AND STILL CAN REINFORCE huge cost, with several periods of instability INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE and paralysis. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was the THE MIDDLE EAST, BETTER EXPLAINED first of its kind. It represents a successful THE TRIBUNAL LAID multilateral effort to reinforce a rules- OUT FACTS THAT based international order. It is also the first CANNOT BE IGNORED Rather than focusing on what the STL 2,641 pages of important and judicially tested could not and did not do, its stakeholders in facts about Lebanon’s recent past.10 Lebanon and internationally would benefit For the first Former PM Hariri was a well-protected from an earnest examination of the judgment time in the man, with both private security and that and the process that led to the tribunal’s region, the provided by the state of Lebanon. During creation and governed its conduct. Such an tribunal 415 days in court, the judges heard from 297 examination would have to include a clear introduced the witnesses, received 171,000 pages of exhibits, understanding of the system of international principle of and concluded that the careful planning and criminal justice and its limits, as well as preparation required to assassinate someone accountability the specific restrictions placed on the STL. as closely protected as Hariri involved at These are essential prerequisites for properly for political least 10 and possibly many more individuals, evaluating the importance of the judgment crimes who used four different interconnected, issued on Aug. 18, 2020 and identifying coordinated and covert mobile phone possible avenues by which the judgment networks. and the facts it established can be used to On the afternoon of that fateful Valentine’s take Lebanon down the path of justice and Day, the criminals also attempted to divert accountability. attention from themselves by creating a false Disappointment with the judgment is based claim of responsibility. They kidnapped, on a combination of unrealistic expectations, filmed and then disappeared a young man a lack of understanding of the tribunal’s by the name of Abu Adass. In the video, he rigorous procedures, and legitimate concerns claimed responsibility for the assassination about the narrowness of its mandate and the of Hariri on behalf of a nonexistent militant length of time it took to reach its judgment — group. nine years from the indictment and 15 years The judgment provides details of this after the crime, at an estimated cost of around carefully planned crime — obtaining $700 million. detailed knowledge of Hariri’s movements, In view of the scale of suffering during the his convoy, its personnel and his usual Lebanese civil war, for which no one has ever position within it; establishing closed mobile been held accountable, and the dozens of networks for communications between those political assassinations throughout Lebanon’s with a role in the plot; choosing a method history, it was indeed difficult to argue that of assassination; obtaining the vehicle used the assassination of one man warranted such for the killing; picking a suitable site for an an expensive and complex legal instrument. explosion; selecting a manner of detonation, This added to the unrealistic expectations including recruiting the suicide bomber; that the tribunal would address much broader procuring the explosives; and setting up the issues of states and groups which regularly claim of responsibility, including arranging interfere with and undermine the authority Adass’ role in it. of the Lebanese nation. This is also evidenced The judgment also describes the political by the little-known fact that the tribunal’s situation in Lebanon leading up to Hariri’s victims’ liaison officer received many calls assassination and concludes that the attack from victims of the civil war and other was intended to resonate throughout the conflicts in Lebanon requesting assistance in country and the region, and that its intended achieving some measure of justice — justice effects were not just confined to Hariri’s that the tribunal could never provide. supporters but were designed to destabilize In 2005, after the Hariri assassination, Lebanon generally. Lebanese protesters demanded “the truth.” The judges also concluded that the attack In simpler and less controversial terms, they did not occur in a political or historical wanted to know who did it. vacuum, and that Syria and Hezbollah may On Aug. 18, 2020, the STL provided the have had motives to eliminate Hariri and his answer — the terrorist attack that killed political allies.11 22 people, injured 226 and devastated a In fact, the judges stated that the evidence significant part of Beirut was carried out by THE MIDDLE EAST, BETTER EXPLAINED presented was sufficient
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