A U.N. tribunal set up to prosecute those behind the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has run out of funding amid Lebanon's economic and political crisis, threatening plans for future trials, people involved in the process said.
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By Stephanie van den Berg THE HAGUE (Reuters) -A U.N. tribunal set up to prosecute those behind the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has run out of funding amid Lebanon s economic and political crisis, threatening plans for future trials, people involved in the process said. Closing the tribunal would dash the hopes of families of victims in the Hariri murder and other attacks, but also those demanding that a U.N. tribunal bring to justice those responsible for the Beirut port blast last August that killed 200 and injured 6,500. Last year the U.N. Special Tribunal for Lebanon, 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.. Both sides have appealed. The court had been scheduled to start a second trial on June 16 against Ayyash, who is acc