Three senior Garda officers are to travel to Lebanon tomorrow to head up an international investigation into the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Harari.
The team was assembled following a request to the Government from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for help in finding those responsible for the killing in Beirut earlier this month.
A garda spokesman said deputy commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, chief supt Martin Donnellan and supt Pat Leahy, are expected to complete their initial investigations into the car bombing within a month.
He said the team has extensive overseas and investigative experience and had taken part in a number of international investigations. The US and France led calls for an international investigation into the February 14th explosion on a Beirut seafront that destroyed Hariri's motorcade of armour-plated vehicles, killing him and 16 others and injuring more than 100 people.
The team is expected to stay in the region for several weeks and report to Mr Annan and the UN Security Council within a month. It is understood the team also includes UN legal adviser Leila Benkirane and political adviser Ezzedine Choukri-Fisher, a Middle East expert.
UN spokesman Mr Fred Eckhard said he expected the inquiry team to be "looking at evidence and trying to reconstitute how this crime was committed and, if possible, who committed it". Deputy commissioner Fitzgerald, the head of the investigation team, is currently in charge of Strategic & Resource Management for An Garda Siochana, a position he has held since April 1998.
Mr Fitzgerald has served across the world, primarily with the UN. He has headed up UN operations in Namibia, El Salvador, Cambodia, Bosnia, Israel, Kosovo and Iraq. Mr Donnellan is currently head of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigations, having previously established the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
He has more than 30 years experience in the detective branch. Mr Leahy is currently in charge of the Garda Operational Support Unit (Water, Air Support, Mounted and Dog Units). He also has vast overseas experience with the UN including postings in Namibia, Cambodia, Bosnia and Israel.