STL Delays Verdicts in Hariri Case Due to Coronavirus
The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon has postponed its verdicts in the Rafik Hariri case due to the coronavirus crisis.
“Given the prevailing circumstances regarding COVID-19, the STL Trial Chamber will specify the date of the public pronouncement of the Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case (STL-11-01) as soon as possible,” it said in a statement published on its website.
“On 22 April, the Legal Representatives of Victims (LRV) sought clarification from the Trial Chamber regarding the date and manner of the public pronouncement of the Judgment,” the court noted.
The Trial Chamber had on March 5 noted that it would deliver its verdicts in a public session in mid-May 2020.
In remarks to Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper published Sunday, STL spokeswoman Wajed Ramadan confirmed that “amid the current circumstances, the Trial Chamber will not be able to issue the Judgment in the Ayyash et al. case in mid-May.”
The STL has tried Ayyash and several Hizbullah operatives in absentia over the 2005 bomb attack that killed ex-PM Rafik Hariri and 21 other people and injured dozens others.
Hizbullah has denied involvement in the murder, describing the tribunal as a U.S.-Israeli scheme and vowing that the accused will never be found.
The alleged mastermind of the murder, Hizbullah top military commander Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria in 2016. Hizbullah said he was killed by shelling at Damascus airport and that the attack was launched by hardline Islamist groups, an announcement which did not convince some observers, while some rivals of the group, including Israel, have suggested that Badreddine was killed by Hizbullah operatives.
Source: Naharnet
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