February 12, 2009 - Evidence in Hariri murder moved to Hague

BEIRUT: The international commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has transferred all documents and evidence on the case to The Hague where the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is based, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday. In an interview with Future News Television, Siniora said that "on Monday night all documents related to the international investigation were transferred to The Hague." The announcement comes as Lebanon prepares for a mass rally on Saturday to mark four years since Hariri was killed. While Siniora did not give further details on the transfer process, the Lebanese daily Ad-Diyar reported Wednesday that on Monday night the documents were placed in "six containers and escorted from Monteverde Hotel to the Beirut airport under tight security." The report said that the documents were then "flown directly to The Hague on board of a French military aircraft." The French authorities had asked that the aircraft make a stopover in Paris, but the international commission insisted that the flight be direct from Beirut to The Hague, the paper said. In his interview, Siniora said that a transfer to The Hague of the four generals, in custody since Hariri's murder, requires Cabinet endorsement for relocation, adding that Lebanon's cooperation with the international tribunal is in the country's "best interest." On his recent meeting with the tribunal's registrar, Siniora said that Robert Vincent briefed him on "the procedural measures required for the tribunal to commence its work" and on the steps to be taken for the appointment of the judges "whose names will be announced at a later time." For his part, Chief UN investigator Daniel Bellemare told An-Nahar daily in comments published Wednesday that the current phase of the investigation is "Lebanese through the involvement of the Lebanese public prosecutor," stressing that "our job is to assist the Lebanese judiciary." He added that starting March 1 "the situation will change since I will be taking over the file and continuing the investigation." He said that he has a period of two months from the day he assumes his task to submit a request to the Lebanese public prosecutor for the transfer to The Hague of "everything related to the (investigation) file, including those in (Lebanese) custody." "But I can tell you that I will be submitting a request for relocation" at the earliest stage possible of the two month-period. Asked if he expected the Lebanese government to delay or prevent the transfer of the four generals, Bellemare said he had no reason to believe that the Lebanese authorities will not "execute my request." In case the four generals were still under arrest by the time he assumes his duties as international public prosecutor, "they will be transferred to the Hague along with the file," he said.