U.N. Hariri Probe Digging Up Evidence on Criminal Network

by **Admin** Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:38 am

Daniel Bellemare, head of the U.N. probe into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has said that the priority of the inquiry is to now gather more evidence about the "criminal network" responsible for the massive car bombing and determine its participants.

Bellemare, said in his latest report to the Security Council, that the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) has accumulated evidence indicating that the criminal network had conducted surveillance of Hariri before he was killed in the bombing along with 22 other people in Beirut Feb. 14, 2005.

He said that "at least part of the (so-called) Hariri network continued to exist and operate after the assassination."

Bellemare said the IIIC was also trying to establish the links between members of the network and any others outside the group.

He is also trying pin down the role the network has played in other deadly attacks against prominent figures in Lebanon in recent years.

The U.N. commission is also continuing to pursue its investigation of the identity of the suicide bomber in the Hariri case, drawing on forensic information obtained and an analysis of the missing person files of various countries to generate possible leaders. DNA profiling is being carried out as well.

The report, published on Thursday, noted that progress has been made in several other investigations, including the attacks that targeted Maj. Gen. François al-Hajj, killed in a car bombing last December, and Maj. Wissam Eid, murdered after a roadside explosion in late January this year.

"In the new cases, the Commission is working on a profile of the targeted victim and possible motives for the attack," Bellemare wrote in his report.

The IIIC's investigation "must continue to be guided solely by the facts and by the evidence," Bellemare concluded. "Its conclusions cannot rely on rumor or assumption; they must be supported by reliable evidence that will be admissible before a tribunal."

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and the U.N. are taking steps to set up the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to try those responsible for Hariri's killing.

Last month, Security Council members welcomed a report that showed Ban is making significant progress.