This is a short post to note the resignation as President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on health grounds of Judge Antonio Cassese . The Tribunal elected the new President, Judge Sir David Baragwanath, on 10 October, a day later. Judge Cassese will continue to serve as a Judge of the Tribunal’s Appeals Chamber, focusing on legal matters.
A detailed press release was issued on the same day of the election of the new President. Judge Sir David Baragwanath, a lawyer from New Zelaland, has nearly fifty years of legal experience and has practiced as defence counsel, as prosecution counsel and as judge. Few international judges have such an extensive and varied legal experience.
Inaugurated on 1 March 2009, the Lebanon Tribunal has not had an easy start. Its mandate is to hold responsible the persons involved in the brutal assassination of Lebanon’s prime minister Rafik Hariri on 14 February 2005. The Tribunal displays a number of unique features. Its two really unique features vis-à-vis other international criminal judicial bodies are that trials in absentia are allowed and that a Defence Office has been established which has the same status with the Office of the Prosecution.
If you want to read more about the cases brought before this tribunal see here.
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