EU Parliament - Freezing funds of suspects in Rafiq Hariri murder

MEPs adopted a Council regulation which will allow the freezing of funds and economic resources of a list of persons suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. MEPs agreed to treat the issue by the urgency procedure as the Council had requested.

The purpose of this Council Regulation is to impose specific restrictive measures against designated persons suspected of involvement in the planning, sponsoring, organising or perpetrating of the assassination of Hariri. This is in line with measures taken by the United Nations Security Council, which in October 2005 decided to launch an international independent investigation commission looking into the February 2005 bombing that killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister and 22 others.

The freezing of funds and economic resources falls within the scope of the Treaty on the European Union and the measures are similar to those imposed on persons and entities associated with Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda network, the Taliban and for the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former-Yugoslavia. The last time the European Parliament adopted a similar consultation procedure was to freeze the assets of weapon dealers in Sudan and Congo in June 2005.

In the case of Hariri's murder suspects, the list of persons and entities concerned (detailed in annex 1 to the proposal) is to be established by the Council. The Commission's role is to update the list, which can be supervised by the UN Sanctions Committee.

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• EU-Syria Association Agreement: Speech by European Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner  (26/10/2006)
• Austrian Foreign Minister Plassnik: "Lebanon's political development on the right road" (21/3/2006)
• EU Council Conclusions - Syria and Lebanon (7/11/2005)
• EU Presidency Statement on Syria (27/10/2005)
• GAERC Conclusions on Syria and Lebanon (18/7/2005)