LEBANON: Hariri trial could cause further divisions in troubled Lebanon where political assassinations will continue, warns analyst

Record ID: 431408

  • Title: LEBANON: Hariri trial could cause further divisions in troubled Lebanon where political assassinations will continue, warns analyst
  • Date: 15th January 2014
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (JANUARY 15, 2014) (REUTERS) MARTYR'S SQUARE FORMER LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER RAFIQ AL-HARIRI'S GRAVE SITE NEAR MARTYR'S SQUARE PHOTO OF HARIRI GRAVE SITE ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF HARIRI'S TOMB PAPER READING IN ARABIC 'STATUTE OF THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON' (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAMI KHOURI, DIRECTOR OF ISSAM FARES INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT, SAYING: "I think it is extremely important but it is very divisive, it continues to generate arguments on both sides, in the final analysis, we can't judge the court until the proceedings are held which is now starting so we can see the evidence, hear the arguments, hear the defence arguments and then you'll have a real serious legal process, if the evidence is strong and credible and the defence cannot counter it then people will have a better idea that actually that these accused people actually killed Hariri and then justice can take its course. Of course, the people are not in custody of the court so they may or not ever be sent to jail or whatever the punishment may be, and if the evidence is weak and it is faulty and it can be easily disputed then the court will just die away as not a very credible institution." VARIOUS OF ITEMS IN KHOURI'S OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAMI KHOURI, DIRECTOR OF ISSAM FARES INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT, SAYING: "I don't think the court itself even if it has a clear verdict is going to stop other political assassinations unfortunately, because these have been going on for decades and will continue to go on and it is not easy to get the UN security council create a court every time there is an assassination. So the real issue is 'will this court help the Lebanese authorities, the political and police authorities to have a stronger capability and a stronger will to actually deal with these issues internally' as a Lebanese issue cause usually the issues are dealt by the country, Lebanon was not able to deal with it especially during the previous years when the Syrians were controlling the country, there was no way that the Lebanese authorities could deal with these issues. Now the situation has changed." VARIOUS OF TOMBS OF PEOPLE WHO DIED WITH HARIRI AND OTHER FIGURES ASSASSINATED AFTER HARIRI WHO WERE BURIED NEAR HIM VARIOUS OF BEIRUT STREETS NEAR THE SITE WHERE HARIRI WAS ASSASSINATED BEIRUT, LEBANON (JANUARY 14, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DR. LEILA NICOLAS RAHBANY, EXPERT IN INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS, SAYING: "It is noticeable from the international criminal courts generally and from Lebanon's tribunal especially that justice is marred by a lot of politicisation. If we look back to the course of the special criminal tribunal for Lebanon, we notice that the tribunal was accompanied by a lot of leaks, a lot of politicisation that made even the believers in it as international justice, it made them sceptical in its course, and especially that there is a lot of evidence that the indictment neglected." VARIOUS OF RAHBANY'S BOOK AND OTHER ITEMS IN HER HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DR. LEILA NICOLAS RAHBANY, EXPERT IN INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS, SAYING: "For the tribunal to stop the assassinations, the assassinations are related to many things more than justice and more than the case of Hariri's assassination. If all the assassinations were happening from the same side that assassinated Hariri and they are being punished now, or may be turned to the tribunal as a deterrent, we say that the assassinations will stop. But politically, we know that there are a lot of actors exercising political assassination, the assassination for political goals. That's why I don't think that the assassinations for political goals will stop through a tribunal or a trial of five people or the trial of 10 people in Lebanon." BEIRUT, LEBANON (JANUARY 15, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ONE OF THE SITES OF LATEST EXPLOSIONS IN BEIRUT THAT KILLED FORMER LEBANESE MINISTER MOHAMMED CHATAH VARIOUS OF DAMAGE TO BUILDING NEAR CHATAH'S ASSASSINATION SITE BEIRUT, LEBANON (JANUARY 13, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NARA HAWI, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE HAWI, SAYING: "Actually, concerning the tribunal it is more a hope than expectation, we hope that they will get to any result. Till now, as long as we don't have any idea of what is going on to the investigations, we cannot say anything." VARIOUS OF A PAINTING OF GEORGES HAWI IN THE FAMILY HOUSE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NARA HAWI, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE HAWI, SAYING: "After almost nine years, it seems like things are going worse, even worse than at that time, so also it is hope that things will change, not that much." TRAFFIC IN BEIRUT STREET WHERE LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER RAFIQ AL-HARIRI WAS ASSASSINATED CLOSE OF SIGN READING IN ARABIC 'SITE ASSASSINATION OF THE MARTYR RAFIQ HARIRI AND HIS COMPANIONS' VARIOUS OF SIGN READING THE LIST OF NAMES OF 'MARTYRS OF 14 FEBRUARY 2005' IN ARABIC VARIOUS OF STATUE OF HARIRI
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2DWRJUUPOW1Q68MQQV72W1LLI
  • Story Text: Nine years after the assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, the trial of four men accused of his killing opens on Thursday (January 16). But the defendants are on the run, bombers are back on Beirut streets and a new era of justice which the trial was meant to introduce to Lebanon remains elusive.
    Hariri and 21 other people were killed on the Beirut seafront in February 2005, in the deadliest of a series of attacks against critics of Syria's military dominance in Lebanon.
    His killing triggered huge public protest and led to the establishment of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, a court near The Hague where prosecution lawyers will set out the case against the four absent defendants on Thursday before a panel of Lebanese and international judges.
    Hariri's Western supporters hailed the tribunal as a chance to close a long chapter of impunity in Lebanon, where bombers and assassins have operated since the 1975-1990 civil war with little prospect of facing justice in court.
    But the bomb which killed the billionaire former premier also drove a wedge between Hariri's Sunni Muslim community and Lebanese Shi'ites loyal to Syrian-backed Hezbollah, whose members now stand accused of the killing.
    That rift has been further poisoned by differences over Syria's civil war, which has drawn Lebanese Sunni and Shi'ite fighters onto opposing sides and has spilled over into deadly sectarian attacks in Lebanon's main cities.
    Political commentator Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares institute for public policy and International affairs at the American University of Beirut, fears the trial will cause further divisions in the country.

    "I think it is extremely important but it is very divisive. If the evidence is strong and credible and the defence cannot counter it then people will have a better idea that actually that these accused people actually killed Hariri and then justice can take its course.

    "Of course, the people are not in custody of the court so they may or not ever be sent to jail or whatever the punishment may be, and if the evidence is weak and it is faulty and it can be easily disputed then the court will just die away as not a very credible institution."
    Whatever the court verdict, he believes assassination will continue to be used as a political weapon.

    "These have been going on for decades and will continue to go on and it is not easy to get the UN security council create a court every time there is an assassination. So the real issue is 'will this court help the Lebanese authorities, the political and police authorities to have a stronger capability and a stronger will to actually deal with these issues internally?," he added.
    Another political commentator, university lecturer Dr. Leila Nicolah Rahbany, an expert in international justice and human rights, agrees with Khouri.

    "For the tribunal to stop the assassinations, the assassinations are related to many things more than justice and more than the case of Hariri's assassination. I don't think that the assassinations for political goals will stop through a tribunal or a trial of five people or the trial of 10 people in Lebanon," she said.
    Late last month, just three weeks before the trial's opening, a close adviser to Hariri's son Saad, a former prime minister, was killed by a car bomb just a few hundred metres from the 2005 attack. Days later a suicide bomber struck in Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold.
    Nara Hawi, daughter of a communist opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who was killed in July 2005, five months after Hariri, does not hold many hopes for a positive outcome from the trial.
    Her father, George Hawi, died when a bomb exploded under the passenger seat of his Mercedes. His killing is one of three other cases which also fall under the tribunal's mandate.

    "It is more a hope than expectation, we hope that they will get to any result. After almost nine years, it seems like things are going worse, even worse than at that time, so also it is hope that things will change, (but) not that much," she said.
    According to prosecution documents and investigators' reports the Feb. 14, 2005 attack on Hariri was a meticulously planned and devastating strike.
    The bomb, in a Mitsubishi van filled with the equivalent of 2.5 tonnes of high explosive, ripped through the busy approach to the Mediterranean corniche, they say. Twenty-two people died and another 226 people were wounded.
    Hariri is buried in Beirut's Martyr's Square, not far from the site of the explosion and next to the huge, blue-domed Mohammed Al-Amin mosque which he helped construct.
    The four indicted men include Mustafa Amine Badreddine, 52, a senior Hezbollah figure and brother-in-law of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyeh. The others are Salim Jamil Ayyash, 50, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, 39, and Assad Hassan Sabra, 37.
    But Lebanon has failed to track any of them down in the three years since they were indicted and they will be tried in absentia, defended by court-appointed lawyers.
    A fifth suspect, Hassan Merhi, was indicted last year, accused of helping prepare the attack and then hiding Hezbollah's alleged involvement. Judges have not yet granted a prosecution request to merge his case with the others'.
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