AMERICAN LEBANESE COORDINATION COUNCIL

While not identifying anyone, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in his final report to the Security Council that progress by the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission in the last four months has led to the identification of new “persons of interest” and new investigative leads.

“The commission has also deepened and broadened its understanding of the possible involvement of a number of persons of interest, including persons who have recently been identified by the commission, who may have been involved in some aspects of the preparation and commission of the crime or who may have known that a plan to carry out the crime was being prepared,” Brammertz said.

“In addition to the progress made in linking various persons of interest to the commission of the crime, the commission has also established links between some of these persons,” he said, adding that pursuing this line of inquiry will be a priority in the coming months.

Brammertz said the commission also confirmed its hypothesis that “operational links may exist” between the perpetrators of 18 other targeted assassinations and bombings in Lebanon, adding that confirming these links and establishing new links will also be a priority in the near future.

The report was issued just after the Security Council unanimously approved Brammertz’ nomination to head the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands. The U.N. chief has appointed former Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to head the Hariri probe.

Investigators have previously confirmed that a single blast from a Mitsubishi Canter van packed with 3,960 pounds (1,800 kilograms) of high explosives was detonated “most likely” by a male suicide bomber in central Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005, killing Hariri and 22 others.

The first U.N. chief investigator, Germany’s Detlev Mehlis, said the plot’s complexity suggested that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services had a role, but Brammertz has not echoed his view. Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for almost two years for alleged involvement in the murder.

Syria denied involvement in Hariri’s assassination but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year presence. Brammertz reiterated in Wednesday’s report that Syria’s cooperation with investigators “remains generally satisfactory,” noting that the commission had made 11 requests for information to Syria in the last four months, bringing the total to 68 since January 2006.

Brammertz stressed that as a growing number of areas of the Hariri investigation are concluded and as the investigations narrow, “the commission has taken an increasingly cautious approach to the management of information linked to the investigation.”

The commission, he explained, is very concerned about protecting the identity of sources and potential witnesses, and about the safety of people identified as “persons of interest” as well as its own staff.

Since his last report in July, Brammertz said the commission has produced a 2,000-page report on the Hariri investigation which has enabled investigators to assess evidence and identify remaining gaps in the inquiry as well as potential new leads.

It will be “one of the major tools” handed to prosecutors at the new U.N.-backed tribunal that will prosecute suspects in the Hariri assassination, he said.

Thanks to “encouraging” progress made in the last four months, he said, “the commission is increasingly able to draw preliminary conclusions on an important number of aspects of the investigation” including the type of explosives used, the van, and the individuals involved in the surveillance on Hariri.

The commission also advanced its understanding of the identity of the alleged suicide bomber and possible motives for the attack, he said, noting that the main emphasis has been on Hariri’s political activities but his leadership in the Sunni community could also be a factor.

“Given the possibility that a combination of factors may have influenced the motive to assassinate Hariri, the commission is closely examining the possibility that two or more teams of perpetrators may have taken part in the preparation and commission of the attack,” he said.

In the last four months, Brammertz said, investigators focused on tracing the origin of the explosives used in the bombing and are reviewing new information on individuals, groups and institutions which may have had access to the material.

“The commission is also reviewing cases of possible disappearances of explosives in the period prior to the attack,” he said.

Brammertz said the commission also has information which indicates that two men purchased the Mitsubishi van used in the bombing with counterfeit documents and gave false contact details to the seller.

“The commission is working to identify them and to clarify their background and possible involvement in the crime,” he said.

As for the presumed suicide bomber, Brammertz said expert findings received recently suggest he was exposed “to significant quantities of a specific type of lead, possibly through proximity to military ammunition between the age of 16 and 20.”

“This could indicate that he was either living close to a conflict area or to an area where weapons were used on a regular basis such as a military training camp,” he said.

New expert findings also provide additional information on his possible place of birth and the location where he may have spent his childhood, which Brammertz did not disclose.

He said the commission is trying to match the man’s characteristics with more than two million people who entered Lebanon, as well as missing persons.

Brammetz said the commission is satisfied that it now understands the background of Ahmed Abu Adass, a Palestinian who lived in Lebanon and appeared on a video tape claiming responsibility for the attack, though investigators have said he is not the suicide bomber.

Progress has also been made in establishing the identity of the individual who disappeared with Adass on Jan. 16, 2005, he said.

Brammertz said a database containing more than 330 DNA profiles, 160 fingerprints and 24 sketches of persons of interest to the investigation has recently become operational and has started “to bear some significant results by generating new avenues for investigation and, equally importantly, allowing the commission to close down other investigative tracks.” Hariri, a popular five-time prime minister, was killed along with 22 others in a massive explosion on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.

Senior officials from Syria, which for three decades was the powerbroker in its smaller neighbor, have been implicated in the Hariri slaying.

Damascus strongly denies any connection with that murder as well as with the string of assassinations of other anti-Syrian Lebanese figures.(AP-Naharnet)