Judge Robert Roth, Presiding Judge of the Trial Chamber, has resigned Tuesday from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon committed to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, four months before trials start.

Judge Robert Roth, Presiding Judge of the Trial Chamber, has resigned Tuesday from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) committed to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, four months before trials start.

This resignation is not normal and does not resemble the series of resignations which are almost endless in the court that have not started work yet after 4 years and 6 months of its birth.

Judge Roth is the head of the Trial Chamber in the STL, who was expected to sit under the arch and try the accused people on January 13, 2014. The official statement issued by the Court gave no reason for the resignation.

An official source at the court said that Roth resigned because of «a legal dispute whose details are kept secret."

As usual, the STL wants to keep its public information secret, staring from the details of investigations by Prosecutors (Daniel Bellemare, Norman Farrell) till the testimonies of witnesses, the liars and truthful of them.

Other sources referred the resignation to a dispute between Roth and the President of the Court David Paragwanat, due to each other's opinion on the objection made by the defense lawyers for three of the defendants against the recent amendment to the indictment issued by the Office of the Prosecutor.

The sources indicated that Roth refused to accept the objection, then lawyers appealed to the Supreme Authority headed by Judge Paragwanat.

In turn, the Appeals Chamber returned the objection back, but ensured sharp remarks against the decision of Roth, which the latter considered a fundamental difference between him and Paragwanat, especially after the defense lawyers has based on the observations of the Appeals Chamber to provide other objections to the amended indictment.

Judge Roth joined the Tribunal in September 2011 following a distinguished career in the judiciary as well as academia.

The resignation sheds doubts on whether the STL will be able to meet its schedule for the start of the trial in January. The court can appoint one of two alternate judges to the chamber, including Judge Walid Akoum who is from Lebanon.

The court's registrar, Herman von Hebel, had also stepped down in March after being appointed to the International Criminal Court.