STL Rejects to Suspend in Absentia Proceedings, Confirms Receiving 2012 Funds from Govt.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Trial Chamber rejected motions by the defense counsel for the four accused to suspend or reconsider in absentia proceedings, it announced in a press release on Wednesday.
“The defense counsel had argued in their motions that in absentia trials are a violation of human rights and that the accused were not properly notified of the charges against them,” it explained.
“The Trial Chamber, however, cannot find any new facts, or new arguments showing an error of legal reasoning necessitating a reconsideration of its decision of February 1, 2012 to avoid an injustice to any of the four accused,” the judges said in their decision.
On February 1, the Trial Chamber decided to try the four accused in their absence.
The STL’s Statute is based on a mixture of Lebanese and international law, and therefore allows for in absentia proceedings if the accused absconds.
Four Hizbullah members, Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra are wanted for the February 2005 suicide car bomb attack in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including the suicide bomber.
The court on August 17 unsealed the indictment against the four suspects and has said Lebanon must try harder to apprehend them.
The Lebanese authorities have failed to arrest them.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said he doubted the four indictees will ever be found and has branded the tribunal a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy aimed at bringing down the party.
Ayyash and Badreddine face five charges including that of "committing a terrorist act by means of an explosive device" and homicide, while Oneissi and Sabra faced charges of conspiring to commit the same acts.
Later on Wednesday, the STL confirmed that it has received funding from the Lebanese government for the 2012 budget.
Prime Minister Najib Miqati earlier announced that “Lebanon paid its share of the funding this morning outside of the state budget.”
“The funding was made the same way as last year and it was not necessarily done through banks,” he explained without giving further details.
“Lebanon has fulfilled its pledge to fund the tribunal,” Miqati said.
The STL said in a statement: "The full amount 26,927,270 Euros, amounting to 49 percent of the Tribunal’s budget, was transferred to the Tribunal’s bank account this morning by the Lebanese Government."
"The STL thanks the Government of Lebanon for its 2012 contribution and its ongoing commitment to the work of the Tribunal," it added.
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