When he began is work, Daniel Bellemare, the Canadian investigator who replaced Brammertz, told the Lebanese authorities "that he hoped that within six months he would be more advanced in his investigation. This was, in a bland way, a significant statement...
By then the UN investigation had lasted for two and a half years ... so that for Bellemare to express his 'hope' that he would have more information within half a year was a telltale sign that Brammertz had not moved as quickly as everyone assumed."
In retrospect, I was too polite in this quote from my book, The Ghosts of Martyrs Square. The fact is that Bellemare had been left very little in the investigation files when he replaced Brammertz, and during his time in office he did almost nothing to add to the investigation.
In fact, Brammertz had hired analysts while in office, and gotten rid of investigators. All this led me to conclude in my book: "[T]hat the momentum had indeed been lost between 2006 and 2008, and that this might ultimately have a harmful bearing on the future trial process."
So if you want an explanation for all those repetitions of "there is not sufficient evidence for ..." in the STL verdict, the reason is perflectly clear. At a crucial moment in the Hariri investigation, the commissioner did nothing, was paid amply for it, and was later promoted.
