22 August 2011

BEIRUT: The U.N.-backed court probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could eventually investigate cases outside of its current jurisdiction, according to a tribunal spokesperson.

Following a week in which the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) requested from authorities in Beirut case files on attacks on three other politicians, court spokesperson Marten Youssef said that Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare could conceivably request permission to delve into cases beyond the tribunal’s initial mandate.

“If the Tribunal finds that a case after Dec. 12, 2005 is connected with the Feb. 14, 2005 attack [on Hariri], it would need the consent of the [United Nations Security Council] to acquire jurisdiction,” he told The Daily Star.

“The tribunal has a mandate to investigate connected crimes. The prosecution needs the permission of the pre-trial judge, to establish these are connected.”

The STL Friday disclosed an order from Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen to see the case files from bomb attacks on slain Communist Party Leader George Hawi, former Deputy Prime Minister Elias Murr and former Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh after it was deemed that Bellemare had acquired prime face evidence that the crimes could be linked to the bomb blast that killed Hariri and 22 others.

While this does not mean that a link between the three crimes and Hariri’s has been proven, Bellemare may well decide to issue separate indictments against accused individuals.

In its 2010-2011 annual report, the STL stated it would try and complete judicial proceedings against the alleged perpetrators of some connected cases.

“In the third year of its activities (March 1, 2011 – Feb. 29, 2012), the OTP intends to: (iii) endeavor to bring to justice those responsible for other attacks found to be connected,” it said.

With dozens of attacks that to the amateur observer bore resemblances to the attack on Hariri having occurred in Lebanon right up until 2008, the court could well seek to widen its remit to investigate cases that the Lebanese judiciary has been unable to get to grips with.

Youssef said that the decision upon which cases were related to Hariri’s killing would be made by Bellemare and it was up to Fransen to give fresh investigations the go-ahead.

“The tribunal as an institution, its reach will depend on what case the prosecution brings forward. If they do have other material, they are entitled to bring a connected case submission. The prosecutor needs to bring a case first, and then the court can prosecute,” he said.

Earlier this month, STL investigators met with Murr and Hamadeh, as well as the relatives of Hawi, and informed them that they believed the cases were linked to the Hariri bombing.

Journalist May Chidiac, who survived a car bomb attack in September 2005 with severe injuries, claimed STL investigators also visited her, although she stopped short of divulging what exactly had been said. The court offered no mention of investigators meeting with Chidiac.

A spokesperson from Bellemare’s office, after The Daily Star inquired about the meetings in Beirut, offered the following response:

“The [office of the prosecutor] has no comment on reports in the press that do not emanate directly from our Office. Any judicial activities of the Tribunal may be made public by the Pre-Trial Judge once he determines to announce a judicial step in the process.”

According to the court’s statue, a case’s connectedness to Hariri’s assassination “includes, but is not limited to a combination of the following elements: criminal intent (motive), purpose behind the attacks, nature of the victims targeted, pattern of the attacks (modus operandi) and perpetrators.”

Given the high amount of attacks of a similar nature to the Hariri bombing which occurred in Lebanon during the past decade, Youssef said that it was impossible for the court to investigate every incident.

“We don’t have an unlimited supply of resources and money, so of course the prosecutor and everyone in the institution has to do a balancing act on how they can maximize the resources they have been given,” he said. “We are limited; we are not an institution that is looking at all the acts of terrorism in the history of Lebanon. We have a clear mandate and we have to work within that.”

Youssef added that the court’s probing of all terrorist activity between 2004 and 2008 “would undermine the judicial system of [Lebanon].”

“[Who committed these crimes] are good questions, but they are not questions for the STL, they are for the U.N. Security Council. We cannot step outside of our mandate, which is on a particular attack and connect[ed] attacks within a limited jurisdiction. We are not given a blank check to look into all crimes in Lebanon; that would be egregious,” he said.

The spokesperson acknowledged that The Hague based court would disappoint some relatives of victims in crimes it is unable to investigate.

“The narrative isn’t always exactly what we want to hear but we have to do the best we can … this might not necessarily address what the whole population of Lebanon wants,” Youssef said.

Copyright The Daily Star 2011.