Report: Baragwanath to Arrive in Beirut on April 1
President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Judge Sir David Baragwanath will arrive in Lebanon on April 1, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.
“Baragwanath has informed the Lebanese authorities about his expected visit in an official letter sent to Lebanon’s embassy” in the Netherlands, sources told the daily.
According to the sources, the STL president will ink a “memorandum of understanding” with head of the Bar Association in Beirut and Tripoli.
The daily reported that Baragwanath is seeking to allow the families of the victims of the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, who are included in the first indictment issued by the STL and the expected one, to appoint the attorneys that they want during the proceedings of the trial.
“Baragwanath will also hold meetings with senior Lebanese officials, academics, diplomats, and reporters,” the sources added.
They revealed that Baragwanath and the Lebanese vice president, Judge Ralph Riachi, held a meeting with a high-ranking Lebanese diplomat at the Lebanese embassy in the Netherlands in February.
The meeting was aimed at setting the agenda of the STL president’s expected visit to Lebanon in April, the daily said.
“Baragwanath described the meeting as productive and useful, in order to launch the tribunal’s campaign against Hizbullah and its allies, who are questioning its credibility,” the sources told the daily.
The tribunal, set up by the U.N. Security Council at the request of a past Lebanese government to try those responsible for the assassination of Hariri in 2005, announced in February that it will put four Hizbullah members on trial even though they have not yet been detained.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the four -- Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra -- but they remain at large.
Hizbullah has described the court as a “U.S.-Israeli” tool aimed at targeting the resistance and sowing sectarian strife in the region.
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