Japanese UN ambassador to head committee on Hariri slaying
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 10:22

Japan's ambassador to the United Nations has been chosen to lead a committee determining whether punitive measures should be leveled against suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Kenzo Oshima was appointed Wednesday, when the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution calling for possible travel restrictions and the freezing of assets against suspects in an ongoing U.N.-backed investigation into Hariri's February 14 killing, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement released Thursday.

The U.N. investigation team, led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, released a report last month implicating top Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials in Hariri's death. While the Lebanese government praised the report, Syria rejected its findings as false, unprofessional and politicized.

Four former pro-Syrian security chiefs of Lebanese security agencies were arrested in August after they were accused of complicity in Hariri's death by the U.N. investigating team.

Hariri died in a truck bombing in Beirut that killed 20 other people. His death sparked a wave of protests by Lebanese, many of whom accused Syria's government of being behind the assassination.