Lebanon: report on Hariri assassination may go to Security Council Friday

The head of the United Nations inquiry into the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri may present his report to the Security Council on Friday, a UN spokesman said today.

Responding to press questions, Stephane Dujarric said Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission, is in New York finalizing the report.

Mr. Mehlis is expected to meet Secretary-General Kofi Annan tomorrow, and his report could go to the Security Council as early as Friday, the spokesman said. Mr. Mehlis will then brief the Council on the report next Tuesday, 25 October.

Prime Minister Hariri was killed in a bomb attack that also took the lives of 20 others on 14 February. The Council set up the Commission to probe the killing after an initial UN fact-finding mission found Lebanon’s own probe seriously flawed and declared Syria, with its troops present, primarily responsible for the political tension preceding the assassination.