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Hariri son urges international trial over father’s murder

BEIRUT: The son of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri called on Saturday for an international court to punish his killers as pressure mounted on Syria after a damning UN probe into the murder.

US President George W Bush urged the United Nations on Friday to quickly meet and consider a response to the investigation that implicated senior Syrian officials in Hariri’s Feb. 14 assassination.

A UN report said on Thursday the decision to kill Hariri “could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials” colluding with counterparts in Lebanon.

Hariri’s son and political heir, Saad, said in a televised address to the Lebanese from his temporary residence in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that he was seeking justice, not revenge. “We call on the international community to uphold its support for the international commission into the assassination of Mr Hariri to unearth the full truth and bring the perpetrators to justice in an international court,” he said. “We are not seeking revenge, we are seeking justice.” Syrian officials have dismissed the report as political and said the charges were false.

“The report is deeply disturbing,” Bush said, adding that he had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to request that the United Nations “convene a session as quickly as possible” to discuss the report.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Security Council members would consider sanctions but he did not elaborate on how much support such a proposal would get. Russia, which has a veto on the Council, is a traditional ally of Syria. A council session has already been planned for Tuesday. It may ask for Syria to cooperate with the UN investigation led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. But it is uncertain whether Bush was seeking a larger, higher-level session. reuters

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