Magistrate charged with Hariri investigation says he is "moderately optimistic"
Beirut (AsiaNews) Detlev Mehlis, a German magistrate who heads the UN commission tasked with investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said he is "moderately optimistic" about the chances of his inquiry, but is prepared to stay six more months in Lebanon if it becomes necessary.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Mr Mehlis said that the Lebanese government is committed to fully cooperating with the commission, which expects help from "30 to 40" countries, Germany included.
"We shall do our best to identify authors, sponsors, organisers and accomplices to this terrible crime against innocent people," he said.
The commission will be based in Lebanon and will assist local authorities according to UN Resolution 1595. It will have three, renewable months to conduct the inquiry and reach its conclusions.
Mr Mehlis told AsiaNews that he was prepared to go to Syria to look at the facts of the case.
If necessary he would check out the report of the UN verification team on Syria's pullout. Thus far, UN general secretary Kofi Annan, and his delegate, Ambassador Terje Roed Larsen, have already found its results satisfactory.
Mr Mehlis said that he will keep some issues under wrap, insisting on the need to "know the facts above all, and then choose our strategy".
He also rejected out of hand any possibility that someone might refuse to cooperate with the commission.
In answer to a question, he said "no one will refuse to cooperate. For the time being, I cannot see anyone refusing".
As for any party not in Lebanon, he said that the "courts and the police have their means" to deal with them.
Mehlis also showed little concern over the possibility, as some papers have suggested, that evidence might be tampered with.
"Two cases I worked on come to mind," he said. "The first one involved a bomb against the French consul in Berlin. It took ten years to bring the culprits to justice. The second concerns the 1991 Berlin bar blast. It, too, required ten years of investigation. In both cases, the first phase was the most important".
Responding to a question about the role some intelligence services might play, Mehlis said it would depend "on whether we have enough evidence to conduct our inquiry without their assistance".
He finally said that the culprits will be judged under the Lebanese Penal Code since the purpose of the investigation was "to hand over the results to the Lebanese".
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