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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| UN hands 'final' Hariri tribunal plan to Lebanon |
| 2006-10-24 |
| Lebanon’s government has received a “final” UN text laying out the legal basis for an international court to try suspects in the 2005 killing of former premier Rafiq Hariri, a judicial source said Monday. Nicolas Michel, United Nations under secretary general for legal affairs, handed over the document on Saturday, the source said, and it could be approved by the Security Council “this week”. The text would then need to be approved by the Lebanese government before its adoption in parliament. No official comment was immediately available on the contents of the document. Lebanese daily L’Orient Le Jour on Monday quoted Prime Minister Fuad Siniora as saying the new text was “the final one” and no longer mentioned “crimes against humanity ... a judicial obstacle feared by certain parties”. Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005 in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront that also killed 22 others. A UN probe, which is still underway, has implicated senior officials from Syria, which for decades was the power-broker in its smaller neighbor. Damascus strongly denies any connection with the killing. Beirut said in September that a tribunal proposal submitted at the time needed clarification before a final version was adopted, without saying what issues were outstanding. |
| Posted by:Fred |