Exactly 10 year ago a gang of skilled and experienced assassins carried off what seemed to be the perfect hit against the billionaire prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik el-Hariri. There are heavy collateral casualties that don’t really bother them. The hit changes the course of history of the Middle East, the assassins aren’t caught and someone else is accused.
An international team of ace investigators with unlimited funding and cutting edge technology is tasked with cracking the case. After the most expensive probe in history they zero in on the alleged killers.
As investigators and witnesses are done away with, an unprecedented and controversial trial gets under way, fraught with consequences for Lebanon, the Middle East, international law enforcement and justice systems.
Beyond the legal, ethical and political questions that the affair raises, it is also a fascinating detective story.
During the last year, I have been following the case. The New York Times Magazine devotes much of its next issue to the findings of this research and has already posted them online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/the-hezbollah-connection.html
Image Credits: Artwork by Michael Mapes. Photograph of artwork by Stephen Lewis for The New York Times. Source photograph by Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images