A special court that the U.N. Security Council voted to set up to prosecute the February 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri came into force on Sunday. The U.N. vote was a direct challenge to Syria, which has been implicated in the killing while denying any involvement.
Although the court's establishment could sharpen divisions within Lebanon, the country is already deeply split. The best cure for this factionalism is the knowledge that justice, rather than politics, will determine the outcome of this case.
Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a massive car-bomb explosion. The assassination led to huge demonstrations in Lebanon and forced Syria, blamed for masterminding the attack, to withdraw its forces from the country, which Damascus had considered a buffer zone and had controlled since the 1970s.