{"id":88918,"date":"2022-03-17T11:19:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T10:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=88918"},"modified":"2022-03-17T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T10:19:44","slug":"special-tribunal-for-lebanons-second-best-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/88918-special-tribunal-for-lebanons-second-best-justice.html","title":{"rendered":"Special Tribunal for Lebanon\u2019s \u201csecond best justice\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 10 judges of the Appeals Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon reversed the earlier acquittal of two defendants. Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi were found guilty on charges of terrorism and murder for their role in the 2005 assassination by bombing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. But is it enough to strengthen the tribunal\u2019s legitimacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi were acquitted in August 2020. Both men had been tried by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on charges of terrorism and murder for their alleged role in the 2005 assassination by bombing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. The trial \u2013 in absentia \u2013 was the result of fifteen years of investigations. The prosecution had appealed, saying that the Trial Chamber had \"erred\" by ruling there was not enough evidence. On March 10, the appeals judges agreed that the Trial Chamber wrongly assessed the circumstantial evidence in the case, which was based almost entirely on mobile phone records, when they acquitted Merhi and Oneissi. They said the trial judges had \"committed errors of law invalidating the judgment and errors of fact occasioning a miscarriage of justice\"<\/a>, according to a statement from the STL. Instead the appeals judges found them guilty of being accomplices to the bombing of Hariri\u2019s convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial Trial Chamber judgment was long and full of historical and forensic detail. Around 300 witnesses had been heard during the trial and 170,000 pages of evidence submitted over the fifteen years since the first international investigators into Hariri\u2019s murder were sent to Lebanon. The appeals judgement<\/a> is similarly weighty. \u201cThe Appeals Judgement contributes to the historical record as the factual narrative of what transpired,\u201d says STL Prosecutor Normal Farrell in an interview by email with Justice Info. \u201cUncovering the facts as to what happened that mid-day on 14 February 2005, can be seen as a form of justice. It is the basis to counter false factual narratives or historical revisionism. It is, in part, a remedy. But not a complete remedy, and not complete justice. An in absentia conviction is only, essentially, second best justice. Complete justice requires that the convicted persons, who have evaded justice, be arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trials in absentia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On 14 February 2005, Hariri, a billionaire businessman who had been Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2004, was travelling in a motorcade in downtown Beirut when a bomb hidden in a van exploded, killing him and 21 other people. He had supported calls for Syria, the backer of Lebanese powerful militant political movement Hezbollah, to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. After collecting evidence, the UN and Lebanon jointly set up the Netherlands-based STL in 2007 to investigate the bombing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five Hezbollah operatives were indicted by the STL in 2011 and 2013 and put on trial - Mustafa Amine Badreddine, Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra. Ayyash was accused of co-ordinating the physical perpetration of the attack. Together with Badreddine he allegedly watched Hariri. The three others had more minor roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the assassination. Badreddine, a higher level Hezbollah military commander, was reportedly killed in Syria in 2016. The four other accused were all tried in absentia and remain at large. In 2020, Ayyash was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment<\/a>. The other three were acquitted. The trial judges concluded that no evidence implicated Hezbollah's leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prosecution filed appeals against the acquittals of Merhi and Oneissi, not against Sabra. Ayyash\u2019s defence team tried to appeal his conviction. But the Appeals Chamber said<\/a> there was no mechanism for the defence to challenge that verdict - the STL legal framework \u201cdoes not contemplate a Defence appeal in absentia,\u201d it said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reversal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The STL was costing around 2.8 million euros per month \u2013 for a total of about 1 billion dollars<\/a> since the opening of an international investigation in 2015 \u2013 and was gearing up to start a second trial against the same defendant, Ayyash, again in absentia. In June 2021 it ran out of cash<\/a>, meaning\u00a0it would have to close by the end of July due to lack of funds. Donors coughed up enough to cover only the appeals judgment<\/a> \u2013 about 7 million euros for 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prosecution's case had mainly relied on the analysis of calls between different sets of mobile phones that it said were used to plan, prepare and execute the attack. It had argued that after the attack Merhi and Oneissi participated in the distribution of a video-taped false claim of responsibility. The Appeals Chamber concluded<\/a> that a network of phones, labelled by the Prosecution as the \u201cGreen Network\u201d, was used to coordinate the attack and that Merhi and Ayyash were members of the Green Network. It unanimously reversed Merhi and Oneissi's acquittals and found them guilty of five counts of conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act, being an accomplice to committing a terrorist act, to intentional homicide, and to attempted intentional homicide. Judges said that shortly after the attack, Merhi and Oneissi did participate in the distribution of the video and ensured that it would be collected and broadcast on Al-Jazeera television within hours of the attack. \u201cThe Appeals Judgement corrected the facts, including the involvement of Mustapha Amin Badreddine, a Hezbollah military commander, as a member of the network that coordinated the attack and the role of those who attempted to present a false claim of responsibility,\u201d says Farrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is sentencing in absentia. \u201cWith the delivery of the sentence the Tribunal expects all judicial proceedings related to the main case will be concluded by July 2022,\u201d says Wajed Ramadan, spokesperson of the Tribunal. Previously the registrar said they would be heading towards a \u201cdormant entity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter their acquittal, arrest warrants against Merhi and Oneissi were cancelled,\u201d explains Ramadan. \u201cFollowing their conviction new local and international arrest warrants were issued on Thursday. The local arrests are sent to the Lebanese authorities. The Appeals Chamber also authorised the Prosecution to request Interpol to issue notices.\u201d The two men\u2019s whereabouts are not known. \u201cEfforts have to continue to arrest the three persons convicted,\u201d says Farrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syria\u2019s involvement still on the table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though the tribunal was costly and took many years, Farrell claims \u201ca number of elements of success\u201d for the prosecution. \u201cFirst, the accused were convicted on the basis of complicated, technical telecommunications evidence. A conviction based extensively on technical data is historical in terms of international justice. Second, the investigation with the assistance of the Lebanese uncovered not only the network of individuals who carried out the assassination on 14 February 2005, but other covert networks used in the surveillance of the former Prime Minister over months. There was no contact or communication between the different cells or networks that worked together to effect that attack. Uncovering the various interconnected networks and their coordination allowed the court, and the Lebanese people to understand how it was possible that Rafik Hariri could be assassinated in broad daylight in downtown Beirut. Third, the conviction, based on facts accepted by the Appeals Chamber, was in accordance with the highest standards of international justice. The accused, though absent, were given their full rights of defence, were defended by Counsel and were convicted based on the required standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d Farrell notes that the indictment against Ayyash for his alleged involvement in a second case concerning three other attacks stands even though the STL closes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others are less sanguine. It was \u201cgood for the judges to justify the additional months of pay \u2013 at least the appeal has worked at the end,\u201d says Nidal Jurdi, who had been representing victims in the second, connected case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Roth, professor of law at the University of Geneva and former judge at the STL resigned many years ago expressing a harsh critique<\/a> of political interference in its work. He now says: \u201cLegitimacy does not rely\u00a0on convictions. The real challenges to the legitimacy of the STL are still open: does it make sense to adjudicate seventeen years after the event? Have the real responsible been prosecuted? The suspicion of Syrian involvement, on which the Trial Chamber has expressed itself briefly but with strong words, is still on the table and will probably never be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeals chamber judgment does not add to those earlier conclusions that there were \u201corganising hands\u201d behind the attack and that \u201cSyria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr Hariri\u201d. The tribunal closes with no definitive finding.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"A<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tThe Lebanon Tribunal\u2019s back from the dead \u2013 for a moment\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 10 judges of the Appeals Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon reversed the earlier acquittal of two defendants. Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi were found guilty on charges of terrorism and murder for their role in the 2005 assassination by bombing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. But is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":88912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[2887,2915,2886],"ji_location":[2313],"class_list":["post-88918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mixed-tribunals","tag-special-tribunal-for-lebanon","tag-terrorism","tag-tribunal-special-pour-le-liban-en","ji_location-lebanon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpecial Tribunal for Lebanon\u2019s \u201csecond best justice\u201d - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On March 10 judges of the Appeals Chamber at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon reversed the earlier acquittal of two defendants. 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Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi were found guilty on charges of terrorism and murder for their role in the 2005 assassination by bombing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. 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