Investigation judge in Hariri's assassination quits

While international pressure continues on Syria which was accused by the Lebanese opposition of assassinating the Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri, judicial sources said that the investigation judge Michael Abu Arraj who is in charge of investigating in the assassination of Hariri quit this mission.

Sources at the supreme judicial council attributed his decision to "the preoccupation of" Abu Arraj as a chairman for the criminal court.

Abu Arraj's resignation was submitted to the council of judges according to the series of references to the minister of justice Adnan Addoum.

This resignation coincided with the call made by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan before the Arab summit in Algeria to the need of "making wider investigation over the assassination of Hariri.

These developments came with the approaching issuance of the final results of the investigation carried out by an international team appointed by the UN following the assassination of Hariri on February 14. The committee completed its works last week and returned back to New York to submit its report to the UN chief next week.

News reports at the Algeria's summit said that Annan met on Wednesday with the Lebanese foreign minister and the chairman of the Lebanese delegation to the summit Mahmoud Hammoud. The meeting dealt with several issues mainly the report of UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen who is in charge of monitoring Syria's implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1559. The Lebanese official asked Annan to brief him on the report, but Annan told him that the report has not been prepared yet.