Lebanon urges UN to find alternative funding for Hariri tribunal

The tribunal tasked with prosecuting those behind the 2005 killing of ex-Lebanese PM may close over funding shortage.

Lebanon has asked the UN secretary-general in a letter to urgently explore ways of financing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), tasked with investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in light of funding difficulties. “The Government of Lebanon would be grateful to Your Excellency for urgently exploring different and alternative means of financing the Tribunal with the Security Council and Member States,” Hassan Diab, the country’s caretaker prime minister, said in the letter on Friday. An exclusive report by Reuters news agency last week revealed that the UN tribunal, created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution, had run out of funding amid Lebanon’s economic and political crisis, threatening plans for future trials.