UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres officially closed the special tribunal established to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. This came to light during an announcement made on Saturday. The tribunal had been created in response to the deadly attack in Beirut that claimed the former Prime Minister’s life.
The spokesperson for the Secretary-General acknowledged the closure of the Special Tribunal and underscored that three individuals were declared guilty in absentia – a trial conducted in the absence of the convicted party – and were handed down five concurrent life imprisonment sentences.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon functioned under the UN Security Council Resolution 1757, with mandated jurisdiction to bring to justice the individuals responsible for the 2005 attack that resulted in the deaths of former PM Hariri and a number of other victims. The tribunal’s mandate could also be extended to include related attacks in Lebanon which took place between October 1, 2004, and December 12, 2005, if these were linked to the assassination in terms of intent, objective, nature of the victims, attack pattern, and the perpetrators.
Beginning July 1, 2022, the tribunal transitioned into a residual phase, focusing on preserving records, fulfilling remaining obligations to victims and witnesses, and addressing information requests from national authorities.
The UN Security Council authorized the establishment of the tribunal through Resolution 1757 (2007), which detailed the composition, funding, and immunities of the tribunal, cooperating with the Lebanese government, and ruling out amnesty for any crimes pertinent to the case. All functions of the Tribunal were carried out as per the Statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The trial documentation for this case contained testimonies from 297 witnesses and incorporated 3,135 pieces of evidence, amounting to over 171,000 pages. The tribunal made efforts to enhance public accessibility to the 2,641-page verdict by publishing a summary on the tribunal’s website in Arabic, English, and French.
The full account of these details came to light in a recent article available here.