Defence team challenges legality of STL

The defence team for Mustafa Badreddine on Thursday filed a motion challenging the legality of the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, saying it violated the Lebanese consitution and intenrational law. In its motion the Badreddine team argue that the STL was unlawfully established and that the Security Council abused its powers by adopting resolution 1757 (2007). They said the "discriminatory" tribunal had no jurisdiction to investigate the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Harir as it "could not in any sense be considered to pose a threat to international peace and security". The team said the UNSC "abused its powers| when it adopted resolution 1757 (2007). "It did not constitute an armed conflict and it did not create any cross-border effects. While the Security Council had a wide margin of appreciation in deciding on threats to international peace and security, its powers were not unlimited, and were subject to review by the courts, including by the STL," said the statement. They also said the creation of the tribunal was discriminatory as only one crime out of a "category of crimes" at the time [viz. Israeli aggression in 2006] was singled out for probing. "The Security Council had never before established an international tribunal to deal with terrorist crimes, not even in the case of international terrorism (such as the events of 9/11). The Hariri killing was properly characterised as a political assassination, which could only tendentiously be described as terrorism; it had no aspect whatsoever of international terrorism," said the legal team. "Rather than promoting peace and security in the region, the STL’s creation had had the opposite, de-stabilising effect – it had polarised Lebanese society, fragmented its confessional and political communities and  jeopardised its fragile peace after years of internecine strife." The relief requested by the defence is that the trial chamber state that the STL has been unlawfully established. The defence also filed a motion challenging the chamber’s decision to proceed to hold a trial in absence. The STL is the only international court that has a mandate to try suspects in absentia. Created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution at Lebanon’s request, the STL opened in 2009 and is tasked with trying those suspected of responsibility for Hariri’s assassination. The Badreddine team is represented by Antoine Korkmaz (lead counsel), John RWD Jones (co-counsel), with Pauline Baranes and Sandra Delval (legal officers).