International Investigation Resumes Activity with Nazik Hariri, Others Close to Slain PM

Naharnet Exclusive Report – Paris

The United Nations commission charged with investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, headed by Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare, is continuing its investigations and witness testimony hearings of the close circle of individuals who used to surround the slain premier.

Naharnet received information from Paris that two investigation teams had moved from The Hague to Paris last week where they have been working for long hours in recording the testimonies of these individuals, starting with his widow Nazik, who has been residing in Paris since her husband’s assassination on February 14, 2005.

The investigators’ inquiries have focused on the former prime minister’s movements, meetings, and places he visited during the last few weeks before his murder.

Sides informed of the behind-the-scenes activity of the investigation estimated that the inquiries are aimed at demonstrating that Hariri’s final activity coincides with the activity of mobile phones whose owners used to monitor the premier, which proved the intensity of the surveillance that he came under.

They noted that this is not the first time that they collected testimonies from Hariri’s close circle.

The indictment, which the Special Tribunal for Lebanon had unsealed on August 17, had revealed part of the activity of mobile phones that followed Hariri’s actions.

It also revealed the car dealership that the Mitsubishi truck used in the assassination was bought from and the areas of northern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs in which the mobile phone owners were located when they used them.