Rafic Hariri’s killer: Lebanon court scraps new trial

The Hague: A UN-backed court on Thursday cancelled the opening of a new trial for one of the killers of Lebanese ex-premier Rafic Hariri as it battles a funding crisis that could force it to close.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, based in the Netherlands, was meant to begin the trial of suspect Salim Ayyash for three other attacks targeting politicians on June 16. But a day after the tribunal announced that it would shut without an urgent cash injection by the end of July, the court said the Ayyash hearing had now been "cancelled due to lack of funds".

"It also suspended all decisions on filings presently before it, and on any future filings, until further notice," the court said in a statement. The court said it "reiterates its urgent call upon the international community for its continued financial support".

The Lebanon tribunal has faced criticism in the past for securing just one conviction since it opened in 2009, despite an overall cost so far of between $600 million and $1 billion. Ayyash was convicted in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment over the huge 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 21 other people, while three other suspects were acquitted.

Prosecutors have appealed against the acquittals. The court announced last year that it would hold a separate trial for Ayyash over attacks in 2004 and 2005 on Druze MP Marwan Hamade, former Lebanese communist party leader George Hawi and then-defence minister Elias Murr.

Hawi and two other people were killed in the attacks, while Murr, Hamade and three other people were injured.

Ayyash remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hizbullah movement, refusing to hand him over, alongside three other defendants who were eventually acquitted.