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The Ticking Timebomb: UN Tribunal Gears Up to Try Lebanon PM's Killers

[Guardian-UK] Ian Black - Preparations are accelerating for the international tribunal in The Hague that will try those accused of assassinating Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, three years ago in Beirut. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, is expected to announce soon that the tribunal is finally ready to start work. Eleven Lebanese and foreign judges have already been selected (though their names have not been announced for security reasons). The tribunal process is "irreversible," insists Nicolas Michel, the UN's chief legal counsel. "We have a prosecutor, we have judges, we have a registrar, we have a budget, we have a building and we have an investigation going on," he said. "There is no way it can be halted." The first UN report on the case, compiled by the German judge Detlev Mehlis, found "probable cause to believe that the decision to assassinate Hariri could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials." Investigators are also looking at 19 other cases of political murder. "There is huge concern bordering on panic in Damascus," said Paul Salem, head of the Carnegie Foundation's office in Beirut. "There is a sense that Syria is drifting into a very serious problem."
2008-03-28 01:00:00
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