Lebanon welcomes new Hariri probe report

by **Admin** Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:19 am

A UN report saying that a criminal network was behind the murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri is an important development, a member of Beirut's Western-backed government said on Saturday.

"The report is very positive and it is clear that there has been an important advance in the probe," Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Fatfat told AFP.

A panel of UN investigators led by Canadian former prosecutor Daniel Bellemare released on Friday a new report into the 2005 assassination, saying that a "criminal network" was behind Hariri's murder in a car bombing.

"On the basis of available evidence... a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination," the report said.

The network or parts of it were also linked to other attacks against anti-Syrian Lebanese figures between October 2004 and December 2005, the panel said.

It insisted, however, that suspects would only be named when there was sufficient evidence, adding that it was still gathering more evidence about the network, its scope and the identities of all its participants.

"It appears from these new elements that... indictments will be issued soon," Fatfat said.

Friday's report is the first by Bellemare since he was appointed last November to succeed Belgian Serge Brammertz at the helm of the UN panel probing Hariri's murder.

In a July report last year Brammertz said that his investigators had identified several people who may have been involved in the assassination.

His German predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, had implicated senior officials from Syria. Damascus has denied any involvement.

Suspects in the Hariri murder will be tried by a UN-backed special tribunal to be based in The Hague.