The leader of the investigation into the murder of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri needs extra time. Daniel Bellemare asked the Security Council to extend his mandate by six months. "I understand and share the frustration of the surviving victims, the families of the deceased, and the people of Lebanon who expect quick results," he said, but also emphasized that it is "important to allow the search for justice to follow its course."

The French Canadian Bellemare on Tuesday addressed the Security Council who mandated his team to investigate the murder of Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in 2005. Bellemare told the Council that the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) needs more time beyond its present deadline of 15 June.

While preparations to establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are in progress, he said he was not ready yet to issue indictments. Bellamare earlier told reporters that the investigation team's conclusions "cannot rely on rumour or assumption; they must be supported by reliable evidence that will be admissible before a tribunal." He now needs more time to gather additional evidence about a possible criminal network that he holds responsible for the massive car bombing that killed Hariri and to establish who its members are.

Criminal Network
Earlier this month Bellemare revealed that a criminal or terrorist network is responsible for the car bombing in downtown Beirut that killed Hariri. The IIIC has found that the network shadowed Hariri before the attack and that at least part of the network continued to operate after the assassination. "Several suspects have been identified but there is still work to be done in that regard", he said.

The IIIC is now trying to establish the links between members of the network and any others outside the group, and what role the network has played in recent deadly political attacks in Lebanon. There is significant progress in these investigations now, including the attacks on Major General François al-Hajj, killed in a car bombing last December, and Major Wissam Eid, murdered after a roadside explosion in late January this year.

Missing witness
A Syrian former intelligence officer who is a witness in the investigations is missing since Tuesday. Mohammed Zuheir as-Saddiq, who was under house arrest in France in connection to the Hariri murder, disappeared under unknown circumstances.

As-Saddiq, who was subject of an international arrest warrant by a Lebanese prosecutor, is reported to have stated that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his then Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud, ordered the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister. in a Syrian newspaper, Al-Watan, As-Saddiq's brother, accused France of killing his brother. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a reaction he does not "know under what conditions he disappeared and if there was a police presence to watch him."

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon
In 2006 an agreement between the United Nations and the Lebanese Republic established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or 'Hariri tribunal'. This international court, which is to be housed in Leidschendam in the Netherlands, is mandated to try those suspected of assassinating Hariri and of other attacks of a similar nature or gravity in Lebanon after 1 October 2004. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN are currently taking steps to establish the Special Tribunal.

The Hariri tribunal marks the first time a UN-sponsored criminal court will be trying a 'terrorist' crime against a specific person. It will be a 'hybrid' international court, similar to the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, with the important difference that it will not apply international law but Lebanese law. Among the crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the court are acts of terrorism, rebellion, civil war and interfaith conflict.