STL President to Visit Lebanon this Week

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Sir David Baragwanath, will be visiting Lebanon this week for the first time, the U.N.-backed court said Monday in a statement.

Baragwanath will be accompanied by the Vice-President of the Tribunal, Judge Ralph Riachy, the STL said.

During the visit Baragwanath will meet President Michel Suleiman and “other Lebanese authorities who work with the Tribunal as well as agencies and members of the academic and legal community.”

“I am honored to visit a country of such great cultural and legal traditions”, said Baragwanath, quoted by the court’s statement.

“The Tribunal’s judges consider themselves not just international judges, but also judges of Lebanon, applying the criminal law of Lebanon and respectful of its sovereignty and its people,” Baragwanath added, noting that he was “determined that the work of the Tribunal be fair and expeditious, with full respect of the rights of the accused and the interests of the victims.”

Earlier on Monday, MTV reported that the STL’s president would arrive in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar broke the news on Monday. Cabinet sources told the newspaper that the visit was linked to the escalating stances on the funding of the STL.

Baragwanath has replaced head of the tribunal Antonio Cassese who resigned on October 9 for medical reasons and died of cancer days after stepping down.

The issue of funding the STL has deepened the rift between the March 8-dominated government and the March 14-led opposition.

Lebanon is responsible for meeting 49 percent of the costs of the U.N.-backed STL, which has charged four Hizbullah members in the February 14, 2005 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.