April 29, 2009 - Al Jazeera - Timeline: Al-Hariri investigation

Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, was killed in a bomb blast in downtown Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Twenty-two other people were also killed in the blast which targeted his motorcade.

The Lebanese opposition accused Syria and elements in the Lebanese security services of killing al-Hariri, a charge both governments denied. A formal investigation was launched.

Al-Hariri's killing set off massive anti-Syrian protests, which later culminated in the Cedar Revolution, a grassroots mobilisation - supported by opposition leaders - which demanded that Damascus end its 29-year military presence in Lebanon.

On March 14, 2005, 800,000 Lebanese gathered at Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut and urged the international community to pressure Damascus to withdraw its army and intelligence apparatus from Lebanon.

Later in the month, the UN Security Council dispatched a fact-finding mission to Beirut to determine whether an international investigation into al-Hariri's death was required.

Here are key dates in the UN investigation.


Saad al-Hariri has always accused Syria of complicity in the assassination [AFP]

April 7, 2005: The UN Security Council sets up the International Independent Investigation Commission after a UN fact-finding mission concludes that Lebanon's investigation is seriously flawed with evidence having been planted and tampered with.

October 13, 2005: Ghazi Kanaan, the Syrian interior minister, commits suicide. Lebanese opposition figures say he was considered a suspect in the al-Hariri assassination.

October 21, 2005: Detlev Mehlis, the first chief UN investigator, submits reports to the Security Council and alleges that senior Lebanese and Syrian intelligence figures were involved in the assassination. That claim has not yet been proven.

Syria categorically denies the report, saying it is politicised. Damascus also claims it has co-operated with the investigators after Mehlis criticises the Syrian government for non-compliance.

October 23, 2005: Saad al-Hariri, Rafiq al-Hariri's son, calls for the establishment of an international tribunal.

August 30, 2005: Four high-level Lebanese intelligence and security officers once part of the pro-Syrian government are arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination.

They are Raymond Azar, the former chief of military intelligence, Jamil Sayyid, the former chief of general security, Ali al-Hajj, the former chief of internal security forces, and Mustafa Hamdan, the former chief of the presidential guards.

They are still being held without charge.

June 15, 2006: The Security Council renews and expands the Commission's mandate to include investigations into 14 other assassinations of Lebanese politicians, journalists and security officials from 2004 to mid-2006.

May 30, 2007: A Security Council resolution authorises the establishment of an international tribunal - the Special Tribunal for Lebanon - under the UN Charter's Chapter VII to try suspects in the al-Hariri assassination.

In depth



March 14 coalition MP Walid Jumblatt talks to Al Jazeera

Chapter VII of the UN Charter empowers the Security Council with the capacity to impose punitive measures including the use of military force and economic sanctions. It also has the power to command Lebanese authorities to detain suspects and bring them to The Hague as witnesses.

Non-permanent Council members Qatar and South Africa abstain from voting on the resolution, warning that it could have political repercussions and would be viewed by some in the Middle East as interference in Lebanese domestic affairs.

March 2008: The UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention criticises the Lebanese government for detaining Azar, Sayyid, al-Hajj, and Hamdan without charge and calls their detention "arbitrary" and "unjust".

November 2008: Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, says the tribunal will begin proceedings on March 1, 2009.

February 24, 2009: Robin Vincent, the tribunal's registrar, says it is possible for heads of states to be brought to the tribunal but it will be the prosecutor general's decision. The Lebanese judges will be kept unidentified for security reasons, he confirms.

February 25, 2009: Three suspects detained in connection with the assassination are released from a Lebanese prison, just days before the inauguration of the tribunal in The Hague.

The charges against Lebanese brothers Mahmoud and Ahmad Abd al-Aal and Syrian national Ibrahim Jarjoura have not been dropped and they could still be summoned by the tribunal.

The Abd al-Aal brothers, members of a pro-Syrian, Sunni fundamentalist group called the Ahbash, were detained in October 2005 on suspicion of involvement in the assassination.

According to one of Mehlis' reports, Mahmoud Abd al-Aal allegedly called Emile Lahoud, the then Lebanese president, just minutes before the blast. Lahoud denies the call took place.

Jarjoura had been charged, after turning himself in in January 2006, with giving a false statement. He said he had lied to UN investigators after a member of parliament from the opposition paid him to do so.

February 27, 2009: A Lebanese judge rejects a request to release Azar, Sayyid, al-Hajj, and Hamdan.

March 1, 2009: The Special Tribunal on Lebanon holds its first session in The Hague.

April 29, 2009: The tribunal has ordered the release of four Lebanese generals held without charge since 2005 over the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.