Strategic Assessment

This article examines the role of the United National Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), which in January 2014, nine years after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, formally began the trial of those accused in the attack. The article looks at the tribunal’s disputed beginnings and its contested history, and then analyzes the current developments in the case as well as the reactions within Lebanon to the trial. Finally, the study looks at the STL’s broader political implications and its potential to further transitional justice and accountability in Lebanon.