A UN tribunal set up to prosecute those behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said on Wednesday it will have to close after July if it is unable to resolve an acute funding shortage.
"The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) regrets to announce that it is facing an unprecedented financial crisis. Without immediate funding, the Tribunal will not be able to operate beyond July 2021," it said in a statement.
Closing the tribunal would dash the hopes of families of victims in the Hariri murder and other attacks, but also those demanding that a UN tribunal bring to justice those responsible for the Beirut port blast last August that killed 200 and injured 6,500.
Last year the STL, located outside of The Hague, convicted former Hezbollah member Salim Jamil Ayyash for the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others.
Ayyash was sentenced in absentia to five life terms in prison, while three alleged accomplices were acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
Created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution and opened in 2009, the tribunal's budget last year was 55 million euros ($67 million) with Lebanon footing 49% of the bill and foreign donors and the UN members making up the rest.
