Cash-strapped Lebanon tribunal scraps start of new trial

Judges at UN tribunal scrap a new trial in the 2005 assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri due to funding shortage.

Judges at a United Nations tribunal for Lebanon have scrapped a new trial against the man convicted of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, because they expect the court to run out of money and be forced to shut down before it can finish. Last year the tribunal, located near The Hague, convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, a former member of the Shia movement, Hezbollah, in absentia for the bombing that killed veteran Sunni Muslim politician Hariri and 21 others. That ruling is being appealed. A second case was meant to begin on June 16, prosecuting Ayyash for another assassination and other attacks on Lebanese politicians between 2004 and 2005.