On Saturday, the United Nations officially announced the closure of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The closure had been scheduled for March 1, 2023, but UN Secretary-General António Guterres decided in January to extend the mandate of the STL, created in 2007, until the end of December “in order to complete the residual non-judicial functions of the Special Tribunal and bring its work to a satisfactory conclusion.”
As a reminder, the STL is closing its doors due to a lack of funds.
In a statement, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Saturday that the Secretary-General takes note of the closure of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on December 31, 2023.
The Tribunal was set up following the adoption of Security Council resolution 1757 (2007) to prosecute those responsible for the bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005, which killed 22 people, including former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, and wounded 226 others. The jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal has also been extended to other attacks that the judiciary has established were “linked” to the attack of February 14, 2005.
The STL had established that Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, all close to Hezbollah, were guilty in the assassination of Rafic Hariri and sentenced them in absentia to five concurrent life sentences.
According to Dujarric, the Secretary-General praised the work of the judges and staff of the Special Tribunal throughout the previous years, as well as “the support provided by the Government of Lebanon, the Government of the Netherlands as host State, and donor countries.” The seat of the STL was in Leidschendam, Netherlands.
