Special Tribunal for Lebanon re-elects heads

On March 13, Judge Sir David Baragwanath was re-elected unanimously as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) President and Presiding Judge of the Appeals Chamber. The Appeals Chamber also voted unanimously to re-elect Judge Ralph Riachi of Lebanon as the Vice-President. They will now serve 18-month terms. Judge Baragwanath was first elected President after Judge Antonio Cassese stepped down in October 2011 on health grounds. Under the Tribunal’s Rules, Judges Baragwanath and Riachi continued to serve in their posts, following the end of their mandate (Rule 35(C)). The Appeals Chamber had to be fully constituted before an election could take place. The swearing-in ceremony of Judge Nsereko marked the return of the Appeals Chamber to full strength. Judge Baragwanath brings nearly fifty years of legal experience to the presidency. He has practised both as a defence and as a prosecution counsel. He has extensive experience in New Zealand as a High Court and Court of Appeal judge. He was also President of the New Zealand Law Commission. Judge Riachi served as president of the Lebanese Disciplinary Council for Judges and was a member of the Lebanese Supreme Council of the Judiciary until December 2008. He was elected ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2000. Until his appointment to the tribunal Judge Riachi served as president of the Criminal Chamber in the Lebanese Court of Cassation and was a member of the Court of Justice. The STL opened in 2009 as an international tribunal for the prosecution under Lebanese law of those responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on February 14 2005. The tribunal also has jurisdiction over a series of other attacks in Lebanon (between October 2004 and December 2005) if they are proven to be connected with the Hariri assassination. The court is based in Leidschendam, near The Hague, in the Netherlands and it has a field office in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The STL president on Friday decided to temporarily suspend proceedings to define the crime of “criminal association”. This follows the Pre-Trial Judge’s rejection of the prosecutor’s request to amend the indictment. The prosecution had filed a confidential request to amend the indictment on February 8 and sought to add a count of “criminal association” to the indictment. The Pre-Trial Judge then asked the Appeals Chamber to define “criminal association”, which is an offence under the Lebanese Criminal Code (article 335). The Pre-Trial Judge later rejected the prosecution’s request in a confidential decision on March 13. The rejection was based on procedural grounds. The president of the STL has now asked the parties and the Defence Office to make submissions on whether the Appeals Chamber should continue with the process of defining “criminal association”.