Judges at a UN tribunal for Lebanon have scrapped a new trial against the man convicted of the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, because they expect the court to run out of money and be forced to shut down before it can finish.
Last year, the tribunal, located near The Hague, convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, a former member of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, in absentia for the bombing that killed veteran Sunni Muslim politician Hariri and 21 others. That ruling is being appealed.
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A second case was meant to begin on June 16, prosecuting Ayyash for another assassination and other attacks on other Lebanese politicians in 2004-2005.
But in a decision published Thursday on the court's website, the judges wrote they had canceled the case, "considering it is futile to start a trial in June which is highly likely to be terminated in July due to lack of funds."
