Security Concerns around Hariri Court at The Hague are the Greatest
Alleged killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will face trial in March at a court in a deserted gymnasium in a remote suburb of The Hague that will host the trial.
"Along that wall will be a gallery with 150 seats for the press and public," said Robin Vincent, the registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is expected to open its doors in Leidschendam on March 1.
The tribunal will be housed in the former headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, a colossal building with fortress-like security.
The courtroom is to be built in what used to be a spies” gymnasium, said the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
"In the courtroom itself, there will be 70 seats," said the 64-year-old British registrar, who arrived from the United Nations in August.
"It will be able to accommodate several accused at the same time, their lawyers, the judges, prosecutors and the legal representatives of victims," he added.
The tribunal will try those presumed responsible for the assassination of Hariri and other related crimes.
New South Wales (NSW) Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas has been appointed to head the U.N. investigation into the 2005 bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 other people.
Kaldas will take up the position of Chief of Investigations for the Special Tribunal of Lebanon on March 1 next year.
The use of the building, which formerly housed 700 intelligence staff, is sponsored by the Dutch state – with some left-over furniture thrown in, AAP said.
In one corner of the gymnasium, behind a row of windows, a body-building room will be converted into an interpreters” cabin, explains Vincent. Hearings will be translated into English, French and Arabic.
"The fitness equipment will be moved to the seventh floor and will be used by the security personnel … for them to keep in shape," smiled Vincent.
"Of all the international tribunals in The Hague, the security concerns around this one are the greatest," he said.
The budget of the court will amount to some $ 51.4 million in 2009, 49 percent of it financed by Lebanon.
The construction of the courtroom on the first floor and six holding cells on the ground floor will cost $ 8.8 million.
"Don”t imagine that there will be six accused simply because we are constructing six cells," Vincent explained.
"These are not detention cells … they will be used simply to hold accused before their trials start (every morning) and at certain stages during the day."
Like all accused before international tribunals in The Hague – the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court – the future detainees of the Lebanon tribunal will be held at the Scheveningen prison in a separate wing rented by the U.N. from the Dutch government, AAP reported.
It said the facility already holds former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor and several Congolese warlords.
Currently, a staff of 18 are preparing for the tribunal”s much-anticipated opening, including a legal counselor, a language expert, and a defense adviser.
But in a year”s time, the tribunal will have 305 staff, 105 of them in the service of the future chief U.N. prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.
When in full swing, according to AAP, the court will employ around 430 individuals.
Eleven judges – four from Lebanon and seven from other countries – have already been nominated, said Vincent, but their names are being held under wraps for security reasons.