Chief U.N. investigator Serge Brammertz has identified a "number of persons" who may have been involved in the assassination of Lebanon's ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and indicated investigators had "significantly narrowed down" possible motives for the killing.
According to a report released Thursday, Brammertz said the probe is also investigating new information about the buyers of the Mitsubishi van used in the 2005 Hariri bombing.
The 20-page document, which reviews progress made by the enquiry commission led by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz since its March report, said the commission was also able to confirm previous conclusions that Ahmed Abu Adass, a Palestinian who lived in Lebanon, "is not the suicide bomber" despite his appearance on a video tape claiming responsibility for the attack, AFP reported.
The document warned that Lebanon's worsening political and security situation is likely to have a negative impact on the Hariri probe. "Although the commission -- in close cooperation with the Lebanese authorities -- has put in place mitigating measures to protect its staff and premises, the deterioration in the political and security environment is likely to have a negative effect on the Commission's activities in the coming months," it warned.
Brammertz said a consolidation of information on Hariri's assassination and 17 other murders or attempted murders has helped identify "important aspects and individuals of common interest across several areas of the investigation." Investigators have also "significantly narrowed down" their probe into possible motives for the assassination to Hariri's political and personal relationships with political leaders and officials in Lebanon, Syria and other countries, he said.
Brammertz said the investigators' working hypothesis is that events surrounding the U.N. Security Council's adoption of a resolution in September 2004 aimed at preventing Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud from having a second term "played an important role in shaping the environment in which the motives to assassinate Rafik Hariri emerged."
Lebanon's Parliament ignored the council and voted hours after the resolution was adopted to amend the constitution so Lahoud could keep his job.
The first U.N. chief investigator, Germany's Detlev Mehlis, said the killing's complexity suggested the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role in Hariri's assassination. Brammertz has not echoed Mehlis' conclusion, and did not provide any clues to those who may have been involved. He said Syria and other states have continued to provide "mostly positive responses" to requests for assistance.
The U.N. investigation has confirmed that a single blast from a Mitsubishi Canter van packed with 1,800 kilograms of high explosives was detonated at 12:55:05 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2005 "most likely" by a male suicide bomber, Brammertz said.
As for the van, it left a Mitsubishi factory in Japan in February 2002 and was reported stolen in the city of Kanagawa, Japan, in October 2004, Brammertz said. It was then shipped to the United Arab Emirates and transported to a showroom close to Tripoli in northern Lebanon in December 2004 where it was sold.
