Public Law Studies Quarterly

Criminal Responsibility of Individuals in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Document Type : Article

Authors

seyed hossien Mousavi Far 1
Abbas Sheikholeslami 2
Keivan Eghbali 3

1 Assistant Professor of Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Faculty of Law, Azad University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

3 Judiciary Research Institute, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2022.333286.2927
Abstract
The Lebanese Special Court is a special tribunal established after 2005 assassination of Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri by Security Council with the aim of investigating the assassination and related assassinations and punishing their perpetrators. In this regard, although the statute of the court and its judicial procedure, have made great efforts to a kind of reconciliation between international criminal law and Lebanese domestic criminal law in the field of Criminal responsibility of Individuals. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the procedure of the mentioned court in a descriptive-analytical manner from the perspective of pursuing the criminal responsibility of individuals as well as the fight against the phenomenon of terrorism. The review of the court's practice in the process leading up to the August 18, 2020 verdict indicates that some major shortcomings remain in the institution's achievement of its goals. Recognizing the possibility of a trial in absentia and relying of The Lebanese Special Court on such trials is not only a threat to the human rights of these individuals, but also it seems that the court has not been very successful in providing a comprehensive definition of terrorism as well as in combating the phenomenon of impunity for terrorist acts.

Keywords

Special tribunal for lebanon
assassination of rafik hariri
international criminal law
lebanese domestic criminal law
criminal responsibility of individual
Subjects

  1. English

    1. A) Books
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    6. 9. Meloni, C. (2007). Command Responsibility; Mode of Liability for the Crimes of Subordinates or Separate Offence of the Superior?. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 5(3), 619-637.

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    1. Saul, B. (2012). Special Tribunal for Lebanon and Terrorism as an International Crime: Reflection on Judicial Functions. The Sydney Law School Research Paper, n.12/64.
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    1. D) Documents
    2. Lebanese Criminal Code, 1943
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    4. Statute of Special Court for Sierra Leone (Statute of SCSL), 2002. http://www.rscsl.org/Documents/scsl-statute.pdf.
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    1. E) Judgments
    2. International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia(ICTY) , Prosecutor vs. Furundizia, International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991(ICTY), Judgement in The Trial Chamber, Case No. IT-95-17/1-T (1998).
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    17. Special Tribunal For Lebanon, The Prosecutor V. Salim Jamil Ayyash Hassan Habib Merhi Hussein Hassan Oneissi Assad Hassan Sabra,, Stl-11-01/T/Tc,( 2020)

     

    1. F) Thesis
    2. Clere, Almiro, An Examination of the Special Tribunal Lebanon’s Explosive Declaration of Terrorism at Customary International Law, Dissertation for the degree of Bachelor of Law, University of Otago, 2012.

     

    1. G) Website
    2. Fremuth, M. L. (2020) the Special Tribunal for Lebanon: After the Judgment in Ayyash et al., Justice at Last?

    At: http://opiniojuris.org/2020/10/26/the-special-tribunal-for-lebanon-after-the-judgment-in-ayyash-et-al-justice-at-last/

    1. Blanford, N. (2010) Is Hezbollah right that Israel assassinated Lebanon's Rafik Hariri?

    At: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0810/Is-Hezbollah-right-that-Israel-assassinated-Lebanon-s-Rafik-Hariri

    1. Cornish, C., ‘No evidence’ Hizbollah leaders were behind murder of Rafiq Hariri

    https://www.ft.com/content/39f54c47-eacb-4925-8335-89fc73227a51

     

    References in Persian:

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    2. Aghaei Janatmakan, H. (2010). Special Tribunal for Lebanon; a Different Perspective in International Criminal Law. Private Law Studies Quarterly, 39(2), 23-44 (In Persian).
    3. Beigzadeh, E. (2009). Special Tribunal for Lebanon: A step towards expanding the fight against impunity. Legal Research Quarterly, Vol. 12(49), 145-188 (In Persian).
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    5. Najafi Aberandabadi, Ali Hossein (1994). International Criminal Liability. Legal Research Quarterly, 1(120), 170-199 (In Persian).
    6. Sheikholeslami, A. (2017). Analysis of the New Evolutions in Iranian Criminal law: in the Realm of Offender, Accomplice Aider and Abettor”, Criminal Law Research, 8(15), 135-162 (In Persian).
    7. Werle, G. (2009). Crimes against humanity in contemporary international law. translated by Amirsaed Vakil. International Law Review, 25(39), 59-100 (In Persian).
    8. Zarneshan, S. (2013). the Concept and Nature of Objective Element in the Formation of Customary International Law. Comparative Law Researches, 18(3), 77-99 (In Persian).
Public Law Studies Quarterly
Volume 54, Issue 2 - Serial Number 38
Summer 2024
Spring 2024
Pages 1205-1228

  • Receive Date 01 November 2021
  • Revise Date 03 April 2022
  • Accept Date 22 May 2022

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