Last update - 19:47 28/03/2008
UN: Former Lebanon PM Hariri killed by criminal network
By The Associated Press
Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was
assassinated by a "criminal network," according to a re****t filed Friday
by
the head of a United Nations team charged with investigating the killing.
Daniel Bellemare said in his first re****t to the UN
Security Council on
Friday that evidence indicates the so-called Hariri
Network existed before his assassination on Feb. 14, 2005.
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Syrian intelligence was often accused of being behind
the
murder, and while Damascus denied the charges, the attack nonetheless
prompted Syria to end its long-time military presence in the country.
Bellemare said the evidence also indicates it conducted
surveillance of the former premier, and that at least part of the network
continued to operate after he was killed along with 22 others in a bombing
in Beirut.
The former Canadian prosecutor said the commission
investigating Hariri's
assassination "can now confirm, on the basis of
available
evidence, that a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the
assassination of Rafik Hariri."
The UN team found that the criminal network was also
involved in the assassinations of other high-profile Lebanese figures.
