At time of press, the generals are still held at Roumieh prison, east of Beirut. But once moved to Holland and the trial is underway, the aim will be to complete it in a timely manner. The STL will apply the Lebanese penal code, which guarantees “swift trials, prevents unnecessary delays and allows trials in absentia,” says the UN’s under secretary-general for legal affairs, Patricia O’Brien. Victims of those convicted will then be able to seek compensation from Lebanese courts.
Bias or no bias? Bellemare has made it clear that the STL is an independent body free of any external influences. At its launch, he declared, “the investigations and the presumptive verdict will not be affected by politics.” Vincent also announced that an administrative committee has been formed to “ward off” any pressure on the STL. This body is headed by the UK, with Canada acting as vice president and other members from Holland, the US, Italy, Germany, France and Japan.
Nevertheless, the debate rages in Le-banon and beyond as to how politics could interfere. One of the parties that may well try and influence the outcome is Hezbollah. Its deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem has hammered their detention, claiming that “political interference in the judicial system was forcing it to keep imprisoned the four generals,” and that according to an Amnesty International statement, they had not been charged or convicted of a crime. “Where are the institutions, and where is the independence of the judicial system?” he asked.
Hezbollah is a staunch ally of Syria, which was Lebanon’s power broker at the time of Hariri’s death. The four generals were pillars of the security apparatus established by the Syrian regime during the three decades it occupied Le- banon. Damascus has consistently de-nied any involvement. But in its early stages, the UN commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination, which was headed by Detlev Mehlis, implicated top officials close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A draft version of the commission’s report that was “accidentally” e-mailed to media has named Mahar al-Assad, brother of the Syrian President and Assef Shawkat, former head of Syrian military intelligence, as possible suspects in the plot. Since then, however, the two subsequent heads of the IIIC – including Bellemare – have distanced themselves from those findings. So it remains unclear as to whether there is enough evidence to link Syria to the assassination.
However, before the launch of the STL (and despite the lawsuit he’s facing), Mehlis reiterated in an interview to Al-Hayat newspaper that he had “a very clear picture” of Hariri’s murder, as well as evidence that proves Lebanese and Syrian security officials had “played a role,” adding that he was “looking forward to the day when fingers are pointed in the face of those who commit these crimes.”

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