This piece @tjitskelingsma @justiceinfonet asks all the rights Q’s about @STLebanon “970 million dollars for a single trial on a single attack that killed 22 people, with none of the four accused in the dock” https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/tribunals/mixed-tribunals/44825-special-tribunal-for-lebanon-billion-dollar-trial.html

Why hasn’t a judgement promised in May been read yet? Pandemic or not, there are secure ways to deliver it. And as for reading a summary: the “public relations event” as @PeterHaynesQC describes it could be online.

Is a trial in absentia with highly experienced defence counsel anything more than “make-believe intended to give the exercise an air of respectability” ? as Gunnael Mettraux suggests.

What would happen if an accused were arrested later, considering the non permanent nature of the court? Would there be a new trial?

Lebanon continues to help pay for the tribunal even when Hezbollah is in power. And no arrests. Is this “in exchange for no genuine cooperation” asks @HabibSNassar

These accused are small fish. Where are the “masterminds, commanders or financiers of the attack” ? “Pretty problematic” that these crimes apparently “happened in a vacuum” says @HabibSNassar

Why has the trial lacked scrutiny ? Is it remoteness from Lebanon? Highly technical and not very riveting evidence analysing a telephone network ? Or do most Lebanese see it as just an exercise in score settling between Hariri and Hezbollah?

Is this trial an example of selective justice? No trials for other civil war victims, no other families of disappeared, no victims of war with Israel. “Many crimes remain unpunished” says @HabibSNassar

Will the court ever close? A new indictment for a different political attack with one (same as Hariri) accused was issued sept 2019. Imporatantky, this may help “establish a clear pattern” says @HabibSNassar on political assassinations.

Was is worth all the money? Yes says @isalamey “even a billion would be nothing to bring truth and good closure” and set the record straight. But...

So much money “becomes a little obscene” @HabibSNassar and “it will be forgotten and likely be a footnote in history” says Mettraux (end thread)