UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced his plan to appoint Daniel Bellemare, former Canadian Deputy Attorney-General, as the next head of the independent commission tasked with investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Mr. Ban sent a letter to the Security Council on November 13, detailing his intention to appoint Mr. Bellemare Commissioner of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC).
The IIIC was set up in April 2005, after Mr. Hariri was assassinated in a massive car bombing in Beirut in Feburary of that year. The commision is also investigating at least 17 other cases in Lebanon.
Secretary-General Ban has moved to establish a special tribunal of an “international character†to try the suspected perpetrators of Mr. Hariri’s assassination and subsequent killings in Lebanon.
The full story is available here.
The October 2005 “Mehlis Report” concluded that members of the Syrian and Lebanese governments were involved in Hariri’s assassination. The December 2005 follow-up is available here.