The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), set up to try the suspected assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, opens its doors on 1 March. The court in the Dutch city of Leidschendam will be the first international tribunal to try terrorist crimes. So far, no suspects have been named.

The tribunal, based in the former Dutch intelligence agency (AIVD) building, formally opens for business on Sunday, even though the names of its judges remain secret and it still has no rule book for prosecutors and judges.

No one has been charged in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in 2005, although four pro-Syria Lebanese generals have been under arrest in Beirut for more than three years for alleged involvement. The court's French Canadian prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, is expected to make a statement on the progress of his investigation at Sunday's opening ceremony.

Robin Vincent, the tribunal's registrar, says Bellemare has 60 days from Sunday to request suspects to be turned over to the tribunal. He gave no further details of the suspects that could be sent to the Netherlands.

Suspects transferred to The Hague will be kept in a separate wing of the Scheveningen detention centre, that already holds Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Liberian President Charles Taylor, among other international war crimes suspects. The "Lebanon wing" is already staffed and operational.

Vincent says that if states refuse to hand over suspects the tribunal could hold trials in absentia, "but only as a last resort."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has already appointed international and Lebanese judges but will only announce their names when all necessary security measures are in place.

Hariri murder
Hariri was killed by a massive car bomb explosion in Beirut on 14 February 2005. The attack also took the lives of Finance Minister Bassel Fleihan and 20 others. About 220 people were injured. The assassination sparked a worldwide outcry that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after an occupation lasting nearly 30 years.

Not long after the killing, the UN sent an international team to investigate. Based on the evidence it found, the team concluded that Syria and pro-Syrian elements were involved in planning the attack. The Lebanese parliament in 2005 asked the UN to help establish a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the murder.

A 2006 agreement between the UN and Lebanon established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or 'Hariri tribunal'. Its statute was endorsed on 30 May 2007, giving the court a mandate to try those suspected of assassinating Hariri. The court may also investigate other attacks in Lebanon, of a similar nature or gravity, committed after 1 October 2004.

The tribunal will have a $51.4 million budget for 2009. Lebanon, which will contribute 49 percent of it, had already made a significant down payment. The rest will come from voluntary contributions from member states.

The registrar expects the tribunal to complete its work in three to five years.

Terrorist crime
The Hariri Tribunal will become the first UN-sponsored criminal court to try a specific person for a 'terrorist' crime. The body will be a 'hybrid' international court, similar to the war crimes courts for Sierra Leone and Cambodia, with the important distinction that it will apply Lebanese law, not international law.

Among the crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are acts of terrorism, rebellion, civil war and interfaith conflict. The establishment of the tribunal remains a sensitive issue in Lebanon, where tension between pro and anti-Syrian camps runs high.