Tribunal to prosecute Hariri killers has money for a year, says UN

United Nations: The international tribunal for suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has received enough funding to keep it running for a year, meeting a key criteria for its final approval, the UN legal chief said on Thursday.

UN member countries have pledged some $60 million (Dh220.2 million) for the tribunal, surpassing the $50 million (Dh183.5 million) needed for its establishment and first year of operations, said Nicolas Michel, the UN undersecretary-general for legal affairs.

That removes one obstacle for the tribunal's final go-ahead by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - nearly a year after the Security Council voted to create it.

But the UN chief must also receive indications - though not concrete pledges - that the tribunal will have enough money for its second and third years.

He must also be satisfied with the progress made by a UN investigation into the February 14, 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others. Nobody has been charged in the attack, and a UN inquiry has gone through several chief investigators since it began in 2005.

The new chief, former Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, is expected to release his first report soon, and the Security Council will likely begin discussing it in early April, Michel said.

Bellemare's predecessor, Serge Brammertz, said in his last report that investigation had made progress and was closely examining the possibility that two or more teams may have carried out the attack. But Brammertz did not echo his predecessor's view that the plot's complexity suggested that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services had a role.

Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for almost two years for alleged involvement in the murder.