A UN-backed tribunal will hand down its verdict Tuesday on the 2005 murder of former premier Rafik Hariri, two weeks after the Lebanese capital was rocked by a massive explosion.

Amer Fakhoury, an ex-member of the pro-Israel South Lebanon Army militia who was jailed for several months in Lebanon, passed away on Monday at his residence in the United States following a battle with cancer, Lebanese media reports said.

The release of Lebanese-American citizen Fakhoury in March and his eventual travel to the U.S. in mysterious circumstances had sparked controversy in Lebanon.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Monday that Lebanon’s salvation lies in the establishment of a “civil state.”

“There will be no solution nor salvation for Lebanon unless everyone shows the courage to seek a civil state. Lebanon’s salvation hinges on carrying out this constitutional surgery,” Berri said in a chat with reporters.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday left Beirut for Leidschendam, in the suburbs of The Hague, to attend Tuesday’s session of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is scheduled to pronounce its judgment in the case of the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri and his companions.

After the session, Hariri will make a statement regarding the judgment, his press office said.

Judicial investigator into the Beirut port blast Judge Fadi Sawwan on Monday interrogated detained Customs chief Badri Daher for 4.5 hours before issuing an arrest warrant against him, the National News Agency said.

The interrogation session was held in the presence of Daher’s lawyers Munif Hamdan and George Khoury.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday announced a memorandum on “Lebanon and Active Neutrality”, in a press conference held in Diman, following a series of stances calling for neutrality in recent weeks.

Below is the memorandum’s full English-language text as distributed by the patriarchate:

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency has confirmed four new COVID-19 deaths in camps in Lebanon, calling for vigilance in observing hygiene measures as infections rise across the country.

"During the past 24 hours, four deaths have been recorded among Palestine refugees" in Lebanon, UNRWA said in a statement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Sunday that the LF will seek a parliamentary petition in order to push for an international probe into the cataclysmic August 4 explosion in Beirut.

“As of Monday, we will begin collecting signatures on a parliamentary petition asking the government to endorse an international panel of inquire into the crime. At the same time we will send this petition to the U.N., seeing as this is the only way to reach the truth,” Geagea said following talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Diman.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against the formation of a so-called “national unity government” that would not reflect “real unity.”

“Let everyone know that there can be no national unity government without real unity nor a rescue government without rescuer figures,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday launched a counter-attack against those who hit out at the FPM in the wake of the August 4 catastrophic explosion.

“Although in 2013 we did not have direct responsibilities related to the incident, accusations and incitement have been exclusively targeted against us,” Bassil decried in a televised speech.