Daniel Bellemare, who was appointed Tuesday to head an international probe into the assassination of Lebanon’s ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri, is a veteran top prosecutor with global experience.

Bellemare, 55, now succeeds Belgian Serge Brammertz at the helm of the UN commission tasked with uncovering who was behind Hariri’s death in a Beirut car bombing in February 2005 that also killed 22 others.

The longtime public prosecutor whose career spanned three decades most recently served as special advisor to Canada’s deputy justice minister from December 2006 to September 29.

He has served as head of the Public Prosecutions Service of Canada, in charge of federal prosecutions on behalf of Canada’s attorney general for almost 13 years, with 800 staffers and an 85 million dollar annual budget at his disposal.

He also played a leading role in the creation of the International Association of Prosecutors in 1995 and was responsible for Canadian extradition cases and providing legal advice on national security matters to the minister of justice.

Born in May 1952, Bellemare is a graduate of Ottawa University. He was admitted to Quebec’s bar in 1976 and subsequently obtained a master’s degree in law from the University of Montreal in 1980.

He began his career as a federal prosecutor in 1976 in Montreal, involved notably in a prosecution of Quebec pop singer Claude Dubois for heroin trafficking.

He later moved to Ottawa in 1983 to take a job with the Justice Department’s criminal law policy section, responsible for all amendments to Canada’s criminal code, eventually becoming its director. -AFP