- Title: SYRIA / LEBANON: Interior minister commits suicide
- Date: 13th October 2005
- Summary: RABIYYE, NORTH BEIRUT, LEBANON (OCTOBER 12, 2005) (REUTERS) MP GENERAL MICHEL AOUN WITH REPORTERS AT HIS GARDEN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MP MICHEL AOUN SAYING: "Any suicide or assassination among officials is a suicide in my view. Some may later say that the (Syrian) regime has killed him. This is also assassination because even if the regime has killed him it would be like di
- Embargoed: 28th October 2005 13:00
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- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA4CZMIU3687214E83OS8R9ZXU6
- Story Text: Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide in his office on Wednesday, the state news agency said, three weeks after he was questioned by a U.N. team probing the killing of a former Lebanese premier. The U.N.'s chief investigator is expected to issue his report to the Security Council next week on the investigation into the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. "The minister of interior died in his office this afternoon after committing suicide and the authorities are investigating the incident," the SANA agency said in a report. The Syrian government issued a statement mourning Kanaan's death but gave no other details. Kanaan, who was Syria's top official in Lebanon for two decades until 2002, had been interviewed by U.N. investigators in a team led by Detlev Mehlis. Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been arrested and charged in connection with Hariri's murder. Many Lebanese say Syria ordered the killing but Damascus has repeatedly denied any links. Hours before the news broke, Kanaan spoke to a Lebanese radio station, denying reports in Lebanese media that he showed the U.N. investigators cheques paid to him by the late Hariri. "I think this is the last statement I might give," Kanaan said at the end of the phone interview with Voice of Lebanon. "My testimony ... was to shed the light on an era during which we have served Lebanon. Sadly some media outlets have reported lies to mislead public opinion," he said. "I want to make clear that our relation with our brothers in Lebanon was based on love and mutual respect ... We have served Lebanon's interest with honour and honesty." Kanaan, a 63-year-old Baathist major general, was the head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon from 1982 till 2002. He was appointed interior minister in 2004. In 2002, he was appointed as chief of the Syrian Political Security Directorate. Earlier this year, the U.S. treasury announced it was freezing the assets of Kanaan and his successor as Syria's top official in Lebanon, General Rustom Ghazali, in a move it said was "intended to financially isolate bad actors supporting Syria's efforts to destabilize its neighbours". The Lebanese Central Bank last month opened up the accounts of both men to the U.N. investigators. Kanaan was married with four sons and two daughters.
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