UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has closed an international tribunal that was created to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the UN chief's spokesperson said Sunday.

Over the years, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon held in absentia proceedings and found three members of the Hezbollah party guilty in connection with Hariri's death in a massive Feb. 14, 2005 truck bombing.

The tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands, sentenced the three — Salim Jamil Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi - to five concurrent sentences of life imprisonment.

Judges said evidence linked phones to the alleged mastermind of the bombing, Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was indicted by the court but is believed to have been killed in the Damascus area in May 2016.

The STL, however, leaves behind three unresolved cases: The assassination of former Secretary General of the Lebanese Communist Party George Hawi and the attempted assassinations for former minister Elias al-Murr and current MP Marwan Hamadeh.

At the beginning of 2023, Guterres extended the panel's mandate until Dec. 31 “for the limited purpose of completion of the non-judicial residual functions” and “for the orderly closure of the Special Tribunal.” The secretary-general noted Sunday that those tasks had been accomplished and the tribunal shut down, Guterres said.

Guterres had tasked Mohammed Ali al-Lajmeh, aide to the former STL prosecutor, to manage a team tasked with organizing the archive of the tribunal at the UN headquarters in New York.

Al-Lajmeh told Asharq Al-Awsat that the process of transferring the files was completed successfully. The team has completed its duties in full.

He added, however, that the cases for which the STL was formed will be closed. Should Lebanon arrest anyone convicted by the tribunal, the case will be reopened at the UN and its concerned agencies after holding consultations with the relevant Lebanese authorities.

Riachi

Judge Ralph Riachi, former Vice-President of the Tribunal, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the STL had “accomplished much in serving justice and the case for which it was established.”

He lamented the closure of the STL, but noted that it completed the most important aspect of its work and that is the designation of the crime and “pointing to” the culprits.

The arrest of the convicts is not part of its jurisdiction, he clarified.

He noted the criticism against the STL for failing to name the main culprit in Hariri’s assassination. “This tribunal and no other international courts have the jurisdiction to name sides and organizations. It did, however, flatly name the party to which the suspects belong to in its appeal decision.”

Riachi stressed that it was now up to the Lebanese state and all its agencies to complete the work started by the STL. It must reclaim millions of pieces of evidence and files and fulfill its duties towards the people affected by these crimes.

Failure to do so will “harm the principle of justice,” he warned.

Hamadeh

Hamadeh revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that he had sent Guterres a message months ago, hoping for the STL archive to be preserved at the UN General Secretariat or a dedicated institution “so that it wouldn’t fall into hostile hands that would exploit it to justify the crimes that have happened.”

“We have taken steps to preserve the confidentiality of the probe. There are millions of documents that must remain confidential,” he stated.

Moreover, he revealed that “very prominent” people were named in the indictment, but they haven’t been revealed yet because it is “forbidden”. They must be identified one day in history, he added.

Furthermore, the MP refused to have his case return to Lebanon. “I prefer to see my case remain in the UN drawers rather than see it killed and buried in Lebanon,” he said.

Hamadeh still holds a “small hope that the case may be one day revived, and the culprits brought to justice.”

Verdicts

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly denied that members of the group were involved in the suicide attack that killed Hariri and refused to deal with the tribunal. The bombing killed Hariri and 21 others, and wounded 226.

The trial judges had said there was no evidence Hezbollah’s leadership or Syria were involved in the attack but noted the assassination happened as Hariri and his political allies were discussing whether to call for Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Sunday that the Special Tribunal was established to try those responsible for the attack following the adoption of a 2007 Security Council resolution. The tribunal's jurisdiction also extended to other attacks that were judicially determined to be “connected” to Hariri's assassination.

“The secretary-general expresses his deep appreciation for the dedication and hard work of the judges and staff at the Special Tribunal throughout the years,” Dujarric said.

He added that Guterres also appreciated the support provided by the Lebanese government, the government of the Netherlands as the host state, and member states that participated in the tribunal's management committee.

The trial centered on the alleged roles of four Hezbollah members in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri. Prosecutors based their case largely on data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the bombing.

The four men, who were charged with offences including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, were tried in absentia.

The judges said they were "satisfied beyond reasonable doubt" that main suspect Ayyash was most likely the user of mobile phones used to scope out Hariri ahead of the attack, the key argument of the prosecution case.

They were also satisfied that the 56-year-old Ayyash "had associations with Hezbollah".

During the trial, which spanned 415 days of hearings, the tribunal heard evidence from 297 witnesses.