THE HAGUE (AFP) — The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which tries suspects over the
2005 Beirut bombing that killed ex-premier Rafic Hariri and 21 others, will close unless it receives an urgent cash injection, it warned Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
“Without immediate funding, the tribunal will not be able to operate beyond July 2021,” the Netherlands-based court said in a statement, describing its current financial crisis as “unprecedented”.
The shutdown would affect the court’s ability to conclude the two cases currently before it, the STL said.
The tribunal, which draws 51 percent of its budget from donor countries and the rest from Lebanon, said that “the challenging circumstances generated by the global
COVID-19 pandemic and the concerning situation in Lebanon” had already forced it to slash its 2021 budget by 37 percent compared to previous years.
Lebanon is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, with the World Bank saying Tuesday that it was likely to rank among the world’s worst financial crises since the mid-19th century.
Billionaire Hariri, who had stepped down as Lebanon’s prime minister in October 2004, was killed in the February 2005 suicide blast targeting his armored convoy.
The attack killed 22 people, injuring 226.
Born from a United Nations Security Council resolution and inaugurated in 2009, the STL last year sentenced Hezbollah suspect Salim Ayyash in absentia to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing.
The 57-year-old remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, refusing to hand him over or to recognize the court’s authority.
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