UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council Wednesday extended the mandate of the independent probe into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The investigation was continued for an additional two months to investigate the killing of Hariri and other political figures in Lebanon, a statement issued by the United Nations said.
The International Independent Investigation Commission for Lebanon was set up in April 2005. The investigative body was convened after a U.N. mission found that Lebanon's inquiry into the car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others was flawed and that Syria was primarily responsible for the political tensions that preceded the attack.
Daniel Bellemare, a former Canadian prosecutor who heads the commission, said the extension will allow the panel to operate until an international tribunal tries those responsible for the attack. The trial is to begin March 1, 2009.
"It would allow the momentum of the investigation to be maintained," he said. "The extension would also provide a period of time in which the commission could gradually transfer its investigative operations away from a Beirut base to a base in The Hague."
