STL President Judge Antonio Cassese rejects Major General Jamil Sayyed’s motions to disqualify Judges Ralph Riachy and Afif Chamseddine from considering an appeal of his special application before the Tribunal.

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Antonio Cassese, issued two decisions Friday in which he rejected Major General Jamil Sayyed's motions to disqualify Judges Ralph Riachy and Afif Chamseddine from considering an appeal of his special application before the Tribunal.

In a statement it issued, the STL said that Cassese determined that Riachy and Chamseddine have no personal interest in or association with Sayyed's application that could affect or appear to affect their impartiality.

In reaching these decisions Cassese referred to Rule 25 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, to jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and to the jurisprudence of some national courts.

The President first rejected Sayyed's argument that Riachy and Chamseddine were tainted by the very fact of their nomination to the Tribunal by the Government of Lebanon. Furthermore, President Cassese emphasized that Sayyed's argument, if accepted, would mean no Lebanese judge could ever sit on any Chamber of the Tribunal. This would frustrate the mixed composition of the Tribunal's Chambers, he noted.

Judge Riachy and Judge Chamseddine will participate in the consideration of the Prosecutor's interlocutory appeal, along with President Cassese, Judge David Baragwanath of New Zealand, and Judge Kjell Erik Björnberg of Sweden.