Al-Jadeed news editor Karma Khayat, who is being tried for contempt at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, arrived in Beirut Thursday after a week of listening to the case presented against her at the Hague-based court.
“We will go back to the court because we are defending freedom of press and defending Lebanese sovereignty,” the Lebanese journalist said during a news conference at Beirut’s airport.
“If this was a Lebanese court we wouldn’t be convicted and I don’t think we would even be tried.”
Khayyat’s arrival comes one week after the controversial contempt trial kicked off at the tribunal.
Khayat and Al-Jadeed are facing charges of obstruction of justice and contempt of court for publishing confidential information from the international investigation into the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Commenting on her second visit to The Hague, Khayyat maintained that the charges brought against her served as a “blatant violation of freedom of press.”
She criticized the fact that foreign judges were prosecuting her case and said that even the Lebanese judges in the court were “subpar.”
Khayyat also said that the week’s proceedings revealed several gaps in the prosecutor’s case presented against her and Al-Jadeed.
“If you watched the open sessions and thought that the charges are baseless, then the closed sessions would have revealed that even more,” she said in reference to closed trial proceedings that were kept from the public due to sensitive information.
She also criticized the courts manner of handling topics raised by her defense lawyer, such as the recurrence of leaks from the tribunal.
“Every time we raised the issues of leaks the court would automatically respond by saying there are no leaks in the court, as though the response was agreed on beforehand.”
Khayyat described her defense lawyer, Karim Khan as “one of the best international lawyers in the field,” and labeled Prosecutor Kenneth Scott, who is leading the case against her as a “clear enemy of the media.”
She said that she will be returning to The Hague in three weeks in order to present her defense.
“Our defense strategy, or more accurately our offense strategy is very well prepared,” she concluded.
Khayyat was welcomed at Beirut’s airport by a group of Al-Jadeed’s staff who presented the journalist with white flowers upon her arrival.
