Secretary-General extends term of head of UN probe into Hariri assassination

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has re-appointed the head of the United Nations panel investigating last year’s killing of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri until the end of the year, a spokeswoman for Mr. Annan said today.

Serge Brammertz’s term as head of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC), which began in January when he replaced Detlev Mehlis, has been extended until 31 December. The re-appointment comes less than two weeks after the Security Council, which established the IIIC, extended the investigation’s mandate through 15 June 2007.

Mr. Hariri and 22 others were killed on 14 February last year following a car bomb attack in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Mr. Annan’s spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters today that the appointment was renewed after consultation with the State Parties to the Rome Statute and approval by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, from which Mr. Brammertz has been on a leave of absence since he took up the IIIC post.

She added that the Secretary-General is looking forward to further progress in the Commission’s work under Mr. Brammertz, a former Belgian prosecutor. Earlier this month he informed the Council that he had made “considerable progress” in his investigations, but he also stressed the need for greater efforts to learn more about 14 other possibly-related attacks in Lebanon.