UNIIIC report on Hariri assassination/Syrian judicial commission – Syria letter to SecGen/SecCo President

    Letter dated 1 November 2005 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

  I enclose herewith the legislative decree issued on 29 October 2005 by His Excellency Mr. Bashar Al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, establishing the Syrian special judicial commission to deal with all matters relating to the mission of the International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to resolution 1595 (2005) (see annex).

  I should be grateful if you would arrange for the present letter and its annex to be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Fayssal Mekdad 

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

 Annex to the letter dated 1 November 2005 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

[Original: Arabic]

LEGISLATIVE DECREE No. 96 

The President of the Republic,

Acting in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,

Hereby decrees the following:

Article 1:   A special judicial commission, presided over by the Attorney General of the Republic and having as its members the Military Attorney General and a judge nominated by the Minister of Justice, shall be formed in order to take directly in hand the procedures of the investigation of Syrian persons, both civilian and military, in all matters related to the mission of the International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1595 (2005) of 7 April 2005.

Article 2:   The commission referred to in article 1 of the present Legislative Decree shall cooperate with the International Independent Investigation Commission and with the Lebanese judicial authorities in all matters related to the investigation procedures referred to herein.

Article 3:   The commission may have recourse, in carrying out its mandate, to the services of such civilian and military judges and civilian and military judicial officers as it may see fit.

Article 4:   The present Legislative Decree shall be published and shall enter into force as from the date of its issuance.

Damascus, 26 Ramadan A.H. 1426, corresponding to 29 October A.D. 2005. 

Bashar Al-Assad

President of the Republic

—–