STL Official: All political pressures have failed

Olga Kavran, Head of the Outreach Office for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) , noted on Tuesday that political pressures has always been exerted on international tribunals in third world countries, but they have all failed to reach their objectives.

Kavran stressed in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient le Jour the importance of Lebanon’s cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as “this cooperation is vital for its functioning.”

There is a difference between pressuring a court to alter the course of justice and between pressuring a government over cooperating with the tribunal, Kavran added.

Tension escalated in Lebanon after reports said that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will soon issue its indictment into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Last July, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that the tribunal is “an Israeli project” that will indict Hezbollah members. Nasrallah accused Israel of being behind Hariri’s assassination but refused to provide the evidence to STL. Some March 8 coalition politicians have been calling for the abolition of the tribunal, while Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and former head of General Security Jamil as-Sayyed publicly attacked the government.