Naharnet - International Tribunal to Start Work at Beginning of 2009, August 1, 2008
The international tribunal that will try the suspected assassins of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is set to begin its work by the beginning of next year, a source at the U.N. told As-Safir on Thursday.The source, who is close to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the U.N. chief "has pledged clearly that progress will continue towards establishing the tribunal," regardless of the latest political developments in Lebanon with respect to the election of a new president and the formation of a new government.The same source indicated that although the Security Council had agreed last month to extend the mandate of chief U.N. investigator Daniel Bellemare until the end of this year, he did not believe that the Council would agree to extend Bellemare's mandate again.This means that at the end of the year, the investigator will assume his new position as prosecutor for the international court, the U.N. source added, an indication that Bellemare has made progress in the probe into Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination."I believe that he now has something that will enable him to proceed to assume the position of prosecutor," the source said.Bellemare is not planning to disclose the names of the accused, but rather he will deliver them to the investigating judge, who will in his turn decide whether to accept or reject the requests for detention.The U.N. source said that Ban preferred not to announce the names of the Lebanese and international judges until the end of the year, in order to reduce expenses and also to protect their lives. He added that as soon as the judges' names are announced, they will be transported to The Hague and placed under guard.The tribunal is based at a former Dutch intelligence headquarters in a suburb of The Hague.
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