Top Syrian officials to be quizzed over Hariri assassination
The chief UN investigator into the assassination of a former Lebanese premier has summoned six senior Syrian intelligence officers, including President Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law, for questioning, a Lebanese official said today.
The official, close to the UN team investigating Hariri’s killing, said chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis sent the summons to the Syrian government via the United Nations on Wednesday.
“Mr Mehlis has sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanding to question at least six Syrian officials,” the official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on this sensitive issue.
There was no immediate Syrian comment due to the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
The London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported today that Mehlis wanted to question six senior Syrian officers at the UN commission’s headquarters at the hilltop Monteverde Hotel east of Beirut, and not in Syria.
This week’s Security Council Resolution 1636 gave Mehlis the power to question any Syrian at the location and under conditions of his choosing.
Despite its declared readiness to co-operate with the UN probe into Hariri’s killing, the Syrian government, citing the country’s sovereignty, is reportedly against allowing Syrian witnesses or suspects to be questioned by UN investigators outside Syria.
Al Hayat said the men Mehlis wanted to question included Assad’s brother-in-law, Gen. Assef Shawkat, chief of Syria’s military intelligence service; Maj. Gen. Bahjat Suleiman, former chief of Syria’s internal intelligence apparatus; and Brig. Gen. Rustum Ghazale, the lat Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon who was in charge when Hariri was assassinated.
The other three senior officers listed in the summons did not include Assad’s brother, Maher, whose name was mentioned, along with Shawkat, in Mehlis’ report to the Security Council last month.
On Monday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1636, demanding Syria co-operate more fully with the UN probe into Hariri’s killing or face “further action.”
The resolution requires Syria to detain anyone considered a suspect by UN investigators. It would freeze assets and impose a travel ban on suspects named by the investigative commission.
The resolution came less than two weeks after Mehlis released his report concluding it was not likely that Hariri could have been killed without senior Syrian approval. Syria dominated Leanon for 29 years and was forced to withdraw its military in April under international pressure. The report accused Syria of not co-operating fully in the probe.
The Syrian government has objected to Mehlis’ report, saying his findings were inaccurate and “politicised.” It said, however, that it would continue to co-operate.
Syria repeatedly has denied any role, but its opponents in Lebanon accuse it of ordering the slaying because Hariri had increasingly resisted Damascus’ control of Lebanon.
Hariri’s killing touched off massive anti-Syrian street protests in Lebanon and heated up international pressures on Damascus, forcing Syria to end a nearly three-decade control of its neighbour.
Syria also has been under increasing US pressure to stop interfering in Lebanon, to shut its border with Iraq to anti-American insurgents and to halt support for Palestinian militant groups. Syria has denied doing any of those things.
