Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 24 / Trend , U.Sadigova/
Lebanese judicial authorities will continue to play an important role in assisting the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal of Lebanon, headed by Canada's former Deputy Prosecutor General Daniel Bellemare, to investigate the Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri assassination, UN International Investigation Commission press officer Radhia Achouri said.
The UN Special Tribunal of Lebanon will start operation on March 1 in order to find out organizers of Hariri assassination. He died at a car blast on Feb. 14, 2005.
The Tribunal will be the first UN body to investigate Lebanon's internal issue.
Hariri was the sixth Lebanese high-ranking official killed within last ten years. The Syrian authorities remain the main suspect of the Hariri assassination, as Hariri opposed Damascus' influence on Lebanon's internal politics and presence of Syrian troops in the country. Earlier the investigation was led by an international independent commission, headed by International Criminal Tribunal Prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia Serge Brammertz.
However, Belmar will lead the investigation to begin in March. The Lebanese authorities will assist him whereas the mandate of UNIIIC as established by the UN Security Council in its resolution 1595, Achouri said.
Initially, the main objective of the international commission [at UN] was to help the Lebanese authorities to find the culprit before the tribunal starts its investigation, she said.
In 2007, this approach was changed with the establishment of the STL, at the request of the Lebanese government, which has a dual mandate: to take the lead in investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators of the Hariri assassination and related attacks and ultimately hold trials, Achouri said.
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