BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad
Hariri, in a phone call to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, praised the extension of the
mandate of the court probing his father’s assassination as well as the
appointments of a new prosecutor for the international court.
“On the occasion of the extension of
the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the appointment of a new
prosecutor, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called the United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and thanked him for the commitment of the United
Nations towards the STL,” a statement from Hariri’s office said.
There have been several media
reports on the appointment of a new prosecutor to replace Judge Daniel
Bellemare, whose term ends Wednesday. Al-Arabiya TV said in a report Sunday
that Canadian jurist Norman Farrell, at present the deputy prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was the most likely
candidate to replace Bellemare.
Ban is responsible for appointing a
new prosecutor to replace Bellemare.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon,
established in 2007 to try those involved in the assassination of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, indicted four members of Hezbollah in June 2011 in the
case. The resistance group denies any involvement in the attack.
Saad Hariri’s office said the Future
Movement leader’s call to Ban was an occasion to bring up the subject of Syria
and that Hariri had praised the recent appointment of former U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League joint special envoy on
Syria.
“[Hariri also] urged to continue
efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people and support their
struggle for freedom and democracy,” his office said in a statement.
Separately, his office added, Hariri
sent a message to the new Yemeni president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to
congratulate him on his recent election.
Hadi took over Monday from Ali Abdullah Saleh,
his predecessor of 33 years, saying the impoverished Arab state faced a
"complex and difficult phase" after a year of violent political
turmoil over Saleh's fate.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Feb-28/164904-hariri-calls-un-chief-praises-extention-of-stl-mandate.ashx#axzz1nkwdh1ES
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