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In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin

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In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin. STL-14-06/S/CJ. Athttps://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-06. Special Tribunal for Lebanon, August 29, 2016.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Monica Hakimi
Monica Hakimi*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan Law School
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Extract

On August 29, 2016, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (Tribunal) sentenced a corporate media enterprise and one of its employees for contemptuously interfering with the Tribunal's proceedings in Ayyash, a prosecution concerning the February 2005 terrorist attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The contempt decision is significant for two reasons: (1) it adopts an expansive definition of the crime of contempt to restrict a journalist's freedom of expression; and (2) it is the first international judicial decision to hold a corporate entity criminally responsible.

Keywords

International criminal lawcontemptinterference with prosecutionliability of corporate entitiesdefinition of “person”
Type
International Decisions: Edited by David P. Stewart
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 132 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by The American Society of International Law 

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References

1 See In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin, Case No. STL-14-06/S/CJ, Reasons for Sentencing Judgment (Spec. Trib. Leb. Sept. 5, 2016), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-06/filings-stl-14-06/other-filings-stl-14-06/5190-f0265. Documents concerning Ayyash are available at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/stl-11-01.

2 In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin, Case No. STL-14-06/T/CJ, Public Redacted Version of the Judgment, para. 111 (Spec. Trib. Leb. July 15, 2016), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-06/judgments-stl-14-06/5092-f0262prv (quoting Al Akhbar article) [hereinafter Judgment].

3 STL Rules of Procedure and Evidence, Rule 60bis(A), STL-BD-2009-01-Rev.8 (as amended and corrected on April 3, 2017), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/documents/rules-of-procedure-and-evidence.

4 See In re Al Jadeed/New TV & Al Khayat, Case No. STL-14-05/A/AP, Public Redacted Version of Judgment on Appeal (Spec. Trib. Leb. Mar. 8, 2016), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-05/filings-stl-14-05/appeal-1/judgments-stl-14-05/4823-f0028.

5 See also Judgment, para. 120 (finding that the articles “received widespread and negative attention in Lebanon by the public in general [and] … that the lives of Tribunal witnesses had been put at risk by the disclosures”).

6 See also Judgment, para. 146 (“[T]he content and tone of the 15 and 19 January Articles fail to demonstrate objective reporting of a journalistic investigation, but rather, manifest the views of a political advocate who paints purported STL witnesses in a negative light and portray them as counter to Hezbollah… .”).

7 In re New TV S.A.L. & Al Khayat, Case No. STL-14-05/I/CJ, Decision on Motion Challenging Jurisdiction and on Request for Leave to Amend Order in Lieu of an Indictment (Spec. Trib. Leb. July 24, 2014), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-05/filings-stl-14-05/main-case/orders-and-decisions-stl-14-05/3375-f0054.

8 Id., para. 71.

9 Id., paras. 74–75.

10 Id., para. 76.

11 In re New TV S.A.L. & Al Kayaht, Case No. STL-14-05/PT/AP/AR126.1, Decision on Interlocutory Appeal Concerning Personal Jurisdiction in Contempt Proceedings (Spec. Trib. Leb. Oct. 2, 2014), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-05/filings-stl-14-05/main-case/orders-and-decisions-stl-14-05/3515-f0012-ar126-1 [hereinafter New TV Appellate Decision on Jurisdiction].

12 See also id., para. 26.

13 Id., para. 67.

14 Id.

15 Id., para. 68.

16 Id., para. 71.

17 In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin, Case No. STL-14-06/PT/CJ, Decision on Motion Challenging Jurisdiction (Spec. Trib. Leb. Nov. 6, 2014), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-06/filings-stl-14-06/orders-and-decisions-stl-14-06/3593-f0069 [hereinafter Akhbar Beirut Decision on Jurisdiction].

18 In re Akhbar Beirut & Al Amin, Case No. STL-14-06/PT/AP/AR126.1, Decision on Interlocutory Appeal Concerning Personal Jurisdiction in Contempt Proceedings (Spec. Trib. Leb. Jan. 23, 2015), at https://www.stl-tsl.org/en/the-cases/contempt-cases/stl-14-06/filings-stl-14-06/orders-and-decisions-stl-14-06/3742-f0004-ar126-1.

19 Id., paras. 72–74 (summary).

20 New TV Appellate Decision on Jurisdiction, supra note 11, para. 67.

21 Akhbar Beirut Decision on Jurisdiction, supra note 17, para. 71.