The UN team investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will be seeking to extend its term until December 15, according to Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora. "I think [Mehlis] will take all the necessary measures so his mission continues until December 15, which was the period originally assigned to him by the Security Council," Siniora said Sunday. The international team's mission had been extended by the UN Security Council in August for 40 days, which will end on October 24. German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, the head of the UN investigation team, will be presenting his report on the outcome of his investigations to both the UN and the Lebanese government on October 21, as Lebanese Justice Minister Charles Rizk affirmed Sunday.According to Rizk, "Mehlis has informed me that he will present his report on October 21." UN Security Council Resolution 1595 gave the UN team an initial three month period to crack the case, renewable for another three months ending in mid-December. Sources close to the Lebanese judiciary told The Daily Star that Mehlis, who left the Beirut early Sunday morning with his senior aides for France, "will meet with Beirut MP Saad Hariri," son of the slain premier. Mehlis will be heading to Vienna after meeting with Hariri, where he will be writing his report but "will be back in Lebanon for few days sometime before October 21," according to the same sources.
The report which Mehlis will present to the UN and Lebanese government this month was supposed to be his final report on the matter. Yet Rizk, who said that Mehlis "needs more time to work on the case," didn't see any problem with Mehlis presenting one report this month and a final one in December. Rizk called upon the press and the country not to speculate as to the contents of Mehlis' report, "which has not been written yet." Siniora also warned against speculation about the report, asserting "no one on planet earth" knows anything about its contents except for the investigating team. But according to German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Saturday, "the investigations will not directly implicate Syria as the chief suspect. The newspaper quoted a source close to the UN in Beirut as saying that the report "will not lead to the expected earthquake" in relations between Lebanon and Syria.