Hague likely to host Lebanon court on Hariri death

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 (Reuters) The United Nations has asked the Netherlands to host a special court to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, a UN spokeswoman today said.

Hariri and 22 others died in February 2005 in a Beirut car bomb blast that interim UN findings have linked to Syrian and Lebanese security officials. Syria has denied involvement but the outcry forced it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

The United Nations and the Lebanese government agreed last year that a special tribunal based outside Lebanon would try those suspected of killing Hariri and suspects implicated in other political assassinations.

The world body does not normally make public such requests unless it is confident they will be accepted.

Deputy UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had sent a letter to the Dutch government, asking that the tribunal be established in the Netherlands.

The Hague already hosts the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and other global tribunals.

''In his letter, the Secretary-General stresses the fact that the Netherlands already hosts several courts and tribunals .... and that the experience gained could be of great value for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,'' Okabe said in a statement.

At the request of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the UN Security Council voted to set up the special tribunal on June 10, despite opposition from anti-government parliamentarians.

UN officials have said they expect it to take up to a year to get the court functioning after a UN-established commission completes its investigation.

UN investigators probing the killing have identified a number of people who may have been involved or known about it, their chief reported earlier this month.

Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said that it believed that Hariri, a prominent critic of Syria, may have been killed because of his support for a 2004 UN resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon.

Brammertz did not name any suspects in a report to the Security Council this month, which also expressed concern that deteriorating security in Lebanon could hamper the inquiry.

The safety of witnesses has been among the considerations in setting up the tribunal.

Brammertz is also investigating 17 other political murders or attempted murders in Lebanon.

Reuters SY GC2312