Hague Case Law: Latest Developments
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Hague Case Law: Latest Developments Anna Meijknecht1
© The Author(s) 2020
Special Tribunal for Lebanon Ayyash et al. Case1 On 18 August 2020, the Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) issued its judgment in the Ayyash et al. case. On Monday 14 February 2005, the former prime minister of Lebanon, Mr Rafik Hariri, was killed by an explosion triggered by a suicide bomber. Twenty-one others died and at least another 226 people were injured. Mr Hariri and his convoy had been under surveillance for some months before his assassination. The aim of this surveillance was to obtain information about Mr Hariri’s movements, his security detail, his level of protection and eventually to determine a suitable method to murder him, including finding an appropriate location for the intended attack. The successful attack on Mr Hariri was carefully planned and implemented. Those engaged in the surveillance were communicating in the field using three sets of mobile telephone networks. To distinguish the three networks, the Prosecution labelled them as the Yellow, Blue and Red networks. The Red network was the assassination team. The accused who faced trial in absentia were Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Assad Hassan Sabra. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, along with a number of other related charges. In its judgment, the Trial Chamber emphasized that its ‘role as a first instance trial court is neither to write nor correct any version of history that witnesses or parties may have urged upon it. Its role is confined to adjudicating whether any of the four Accused are guilty beyond reasonable doubt of any of the charges against them. The attack on Mr Hariri, however, did not occur in a political or historical vacuum and the Trial Chamber cannot ignore the background to the attack as providing a possible motive for it. It does this while noting that motive is not an element of any of the crimes charged in the amended consolidated indictment’.2 1
Case No. STL‑11‑01/T/TC. Judgment, para. 393.
2
* Anna Meijknecht [email protected] 1
Tilburg Law School, Tilburg, The Netherlands
123Vol.:(0123456789)
A. Meijknecht
According to the Trial Chamber, the assassination by car bombing of a prominent politician—who had recently resigned as the prime minister and was preparing to contest the next parliamentary elections—was undoubtedly a political act. The Trial Chamber ‘should therefore consider whether political motives may be attributed to any of the Accused […] Understanding the political background to the attack gives context to why Mr Hariri was targeted in this manner, but only as it relates to whether the Accused on trial are guilty of any counts charged on the indictment. Similarly, completeness requires placing the attack within a wider historical setting’.3 The evidence4 showed Syria’s overwhelming political, military and economic dominance in Lebanon after the end of the tragic civil war. Opponents of the Syrian presence included Christi
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