Italian judge Antonio Cassese has been appointed president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the tribunal that will investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese President Rafiq Hariri. The court has appointed its main officials and adopted rules of procedures and evidence.

"The Special Tribunal for Lebanon now has the necessary tools to deal promptly and efficiently with the first files concerning the Hariri case, which the Lebanese authorities are expected to transfer in the next few weeks," Antonio Cassese said in a statement.
In consultation with president Cassese, who was the first president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed François Roux of France as the head of the defence office.

The Tribunal, located in Leidschendam (near The Hague), is designed to try those accused of recent political murders in Lebanon, particularly the February 2005 assassination of Hariri and 22 others in downtown Beirut.

Daniel Bellemare, a Canadian prosecutor and former head of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) into the murders, assumed his office as Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal when it began operations 1 March.

The judges and registrar of the court have already been sworn in as well, and rules governing detention and the directive on assignment of defence counsel have been adopted, the court said.

According to the Tribunal, President Cassese and Daniel Fransen of Belgium, the Pre-Trial Judge, will soon take up their duties on a full-time basis.

The other judges, for the Trial and Appeals Chambers, will take office on a date to be determined by the Secretary-General, in consultation with the President, and their names will be announced once all security measures are in place, the Tribunal said.

The investigation continues under the guidance of Prosecutor Bellemare, and a trial will take place when he has sufficient evidence is in place, according to the court.

The STL has not formally charged anyone and no suspects are in custody. The Lebanese authorities are holding four generals suspected of involvement in Hariri's murder but is not yet clear if they will be transferred to the Netherlands.