New UN head of Hariri assassination probe visits Lebanese officials

The new head of the United Nations investigation into last year’s assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has been paying courtesy calls on senior Lebanese officials following his arrival in Beirut last Thursday, a spokesman for the world body announced today.

Serge Brammertz, chief of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC), has also invited his predecessor, Detlev Mehlis, to come to Lebanon for a formal handover of responsibilities, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the press in New York.

During his tenure, which began in May 2005, Mr. Mehlis produced two reports of preliminary findings. They cited “converging evidence” pointing at Syrian and Lebanese involvement in the 14 February bombing that killed Mr. Hariri and 22 others, while also reporting Syrian reluctance to cooperate.

Upon his arrival last week, Mr. Brammertz affirmed that his priority will remain assisting the Lebanese authorities in their investigation and said that the Commission would also provide support for Lebanese probes into other terrorist attacks perpetrated in the country since 1 October 2004.

Last month, the Security Council extended UNIIIC’s mandate for at least another six months and authorized it to give technical assistance to investigations into those terrorist attacks.