Video shows truck involved in Hariris assassination

Al Arabiya news channel aired a tape taken February 14 by an HSBC bank security camera, showing a 1996 model Mitsubishi Canter pickup truck entering the scene of the blast shortly before Hariri’s motorcade arrived near St. Georges Hotel in central Beirut.

The channel said that the video was used by investigators probing Al Hariri’s assassination.

The 90-second long footage showed a convoy of black cars heading in the same direction as the truck, which appeared driving slower than other vehicles before reaching the hotel. Minutes after passing out of the camera’s view, Hariri’s motorcade appeared in the footage entering the blast area.

Seconds later, the camera’s view finder was obscured by dust and debris resulting from the blast.

February 14th explosion, caused by a TNT charge of about 1,000 kilograms, killed the former Prime Minister Rafiq Al Hariri and 17 others.

The UN fact-finding mission’s report into Hariri’s assassination criticised the Lebanese murder investigation and said that the authorities had found out little about the truck, although they had access to the tape taken by the bank’s camera.

"The (UN) mission … accepts that the theory of this truck having been involved in the assassination is a credible theory, requiring full and extensive investigation," the report said, adding that "little or no attempt had been made by the security forces to determine the movements of this suspect truck immediately prior to, or immediately after the explosion"

"This aspect of the investigation could have uncovered vital evidence," according to the report, "including: the possible identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators, where the truck was parked immediately before the explosion and of critical importance, whether the truck continued on its journey and had no involvement in the assassination at all."