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Last Updated: May 9th, 2011 - 08:37:04 |
Brammertz new head of Hariri murder probe
By Gerard Aziakou
Jan 12, 2006, 11:55
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(Middle East Online) UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Kofi Annan on Wednesday appointed Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as new head of the UN probe into the slaying of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric made the announcement after Brammertz, currently deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), called on Annan at UN headquarters.
Brammertz replaces German investigator Detlev Mehlis in charge of the inquiry, which has placed international pressure on Syria.
Dujarric said Brammertz, who made no statement to reporters, would head to Beirut to take up his new post "as soon as is practicable".
The spokesman added that Annan would in the near future send a mission to Lebanon to help authorities "identify the nature and scope of the international assistance needed for those charged with the crime (of Hariri's murder) to be tried by a tribunal of an international character."
Annan is to consult with Brammertz and Lebanese authorities on ways to expand the work of the commission "to help Lebanese authorities investigate other terrorist attacks since October 1, 2004," the spokesman added.
Last month, the UN Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a six-month extension of the Hariri murder probe and renewing its call for Syria's full cooperation with the investigation.
The resolution also authorized technical assistance to Lebanon from the UN enquiry commission to help it probe recent murders of anti-Syrian politicians. It also asked Annan "to present recommendations to expand the mandate of the commission to include investigations of those other attacks," including the car bombing in Beirut which killed prominent lawmaker Gibran Tueni in December.
The 43-year-old Brammertz had widely been expected to take up the job after Mehlis, the German prosecutor who has led the UN enquiry commission for the past six months, resigned last month.
Mehlis however agreed to stay in his post until the appointment of his successor.
Annan thanked Mehlis "for his excellent work in establishing the investigation and setting it on a firm and professional footing," Dujarric said.
The UN chief reiterated his "unwavering commitment to support the work of the commission to fulfil its mandate to assist the Lebanese authorities to bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime."
Mehlis has released two reports since October on last February's murder of Hariri in Beirut, implicating Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officers and casting doubt on Damascus' cooperation with the UN probe.
And in an interview last month, he unequivocally accused Syria of being behind the car bombing that killed Hariri.
Asked by the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat if he was "perfectly convinced of Syria's responsibility in the murder of Hariri, Mehlis said: "Yes. The Syrian authorities are responsible," without giving further details.
Brammertz is considered a specialist in mounting investigations and coordinating international legal cooperation in the fields of terrorism, arms trafficking and human rights violations.
In Belgium, Brammertz was a national magistrate from 1997 to 2002 and then a federal prosecutor from 2002 to 2003, when he was appointed to the ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes court, seated in The Hague.
In 2003 he was involved in the prosecution of Islamic militants convicted for planning an attack on a US military base in northwest Belgium.
In his position as Belgian federal prosecutor he was the main contact for the UN war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and the European organisations for police and legal cooperation Europol and Eurojust.
At the ICC Brammertz headed investigations into atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur region and Uganda.
Born in Eupen, in the German-speaking part of Belgium, he has a masters degree in law and criminology from Belgian universities and a doctorate in law from the University of Freiburg in Germany.
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