The U.N. probe into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is increasingly able to draw preliminary conclusions on some aspects, the chief investigator said Wednesday.
In his latest report, Serge Brammertz who is currently leading the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC), said the commission is increasingly able to draw preliminary conclusions on an important number of aspects of the investigation.
"These steps have allowed the commission to identify additional persons of interest to the investigation," he noted.
Brammertz added that the commission will devote the next reporting period to those areas of the investigation where a number of important questions remain unanswered.
He particularly pointed out the necessity of establishment of additional links between crime scene evidence, possible motives and persons of interest who may have been involved in some aspects of the preparation and commission of the crime.
"Several promising avenues have emerged in the last reporting period and will be pursued as a priority," the investigator from Belgium said.
In addition, he noted that evidence uncovered in the Hariri and some of the other attacks confirms the fact that "the perpetrators or groups of perpetrators had and still have advanced and extensive operational capacities available in Beirut and built on very specific expertise, equipment and resources."
Meanwhile, Brammertz acknowledged that Syria and other states have continued to provide responses to the commission's requests for assistance.
The U.N. set up the UNIIIC on April 7, 2005 to probe the massive car bombing in Beirut in February 2005, which killed Hariri and 22 others, after an initial U.N. fact-finding mission found Lebanon's own probe seriously flawed and declared Syria, with its troop presence, primarily responsible for the political tension preceding the assassination.
Source: Xinhua
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