Report: STL Threatens to Issue an Arrest Warrant against al-Amin

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon amicus curiae, Kenneth Scott, filed a veiled request to Contempt Judge Nicola Lettieri to issue an arrest warrant against al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Wednesday, Scott said in his request that al-Amin doesn't acknowledge the STL nor its rights to charge him.

Scott added that al-Amin had already published classified material and will not stop, noting that the editor-in-chief rejects to comply with the tribunal's decisions.

The newspaper reported that Scott called on Lettieri to demand al-Amin, who is also Akhbar Beirut S.A.L. representative, and their appointed lawyer Antonios F. Abou Kasm to attend the trial in person at the STL headquarters in The Hague.

“An arrest warrant should be issued against the accused if there was any necessity to bring him to testify before the tribunal,” al-Akhbar report said.

Earlier this month, head of the international tribunal's defense office Francois Roux assigned a Lebanese lawyer Abou Kasm to defend the accused in the case against Akhbar Beirut S.A.L. and its al-Amin.

Al-Amin withdrew on May 29 from the initial appearance in the contempt case filed against him by the STL.

Akhbar Beirut S.A.L. and al-Amin are charged with “knowingly and willfully interfering with the administration of justice by publishing information on purported confidential witnesses in the Ayyash et al. Case.”

New TV S.A.L. and deputy head of news at al-Jadeed television Karma Tahsin al-Khayat have been also accused of the same charges.

An initial hearing for the two journalists and their media organizations was held on May 13 at The Hague.

Al-Jadeed Director General Dmitry Khodr and Khayat entered pleas of not guilty.

Amin did not attend the session.

In April last year, a list of 167 names of so-called witnesses for the former Premier Rafik Hariri trial was published by a previously unknown group identified as "Journalists for the Truth."

The group said it wanted to "unveil the corruption" of the STL.

Both al-Akhbar and al-Jadeed published the list.

H.K.

G.K.