Probe links Hezbollah to Hariri slaying
WASHINGTON — A Lebanese police officer and UN investigators unearthed extensive circumstantial evidence implicating the Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, according to an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The findings of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission are based on an elaborate examination of Lebanese phone records. They suggest Hezbollah officials communicated with the owners of cellphones allegedly used to coordinate the detonation that killed Hariri and 22 others as they traveled through downtown Beirut in an armed convoy, according to a Lebanese and UN phone analysis obtained by the CBC and shared with The Washington Post. The revelations are likely to add to speculation that a UN prosecutor plans to indict members of Hezbollah by the end of the year.
The work of the commission, whose mandate has expired, has been handed over to the UN Special Tribunal, which will carry out prosecutions. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah — who claims Israel killed Hariri — has made it clear that the group will not accept the UN’s prosecution of its members.
The CBC report says that the head of the UN tribunal, Daniel Bellemare, declined a request to comment and other officials in his office did not respond to phone calls. A UN attorney warned the CBC that the organization would alert Canadian authorities that the news agency had obtained privileged documents, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by the Post.
The latest findings mark a major development in an investigation that has played out for more than five years, and which initially had implicated Syrian and pro-Syrian Lebanese officials. UN prosecutors Serge Brammertz of Belgium and Bellemare, a former Canadian justice official, have revealed virtually none of their findings, saying the evidence will be presented in a court of law.
The CBC’s reporting also uncovered an internal UN document indicating that a top intelligence official, Colonel Wissam al-Hassan, who serves as Lebanon’s key liaison with the UN investigators, was considered by some UN sleuths as a potential suspect in Hariri’s death. Hassan oversaw security for Hariri at the time of the assassination but had taken the day off to take a test at a university.
Waiting on Twitter...