Russia Today’s Panorama programme of 28 December 2010 focused on Voltaire Network’s revelations on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The participants underlined the integrity of our investigation and the need for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to respond to it.

In particular, they observed that the political bias of the STL was reminiscent of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (also chaired by Judge Antonio Cassese) which was unable to justify NATO’s intervention and terminated with the assassination of Slobodan Milosevic in his prison cell.

What might have been seen at the time as a fortuitous occurrence emerges today as the trademark of international tribunals. In this light, one can easily appreciate Vladimir Putin’s position in favour of the STL’s dissolution and the definitive abolishment of this kind of political-judicial structure.