Special Tribunal for Lebanon Issues Contempt Judgment for Interference with Administration of Justice (July 15, 2016) [1]
On July 15, 2016, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon issued a contempt judgment [3], finding both Akhbar Beirut S.A.L, a daily newspaper, and Ibrahim al Amin, its editor-in chief, guilty of interfering with the administration of justice. The contempt judge found that the accused had “publish[ed] information on purported confidential witnesses in the Ayyash et al. case” and had “thereby undermin[ed] public confidence in the Tribunal's ability to protect the confidentiality of information about, or provided, by witnesses or potential witnesses.” The contempt judge found that by publishing articles that included witness names, photographs and residential addresses, as well as summaries of the purported evidence the witnesses were thought to give, “the publications created an objective likelihood that public confidence in the Tribunal would be undermined and . . . such a likelihood was intended by the Articles' authors.”