LEBANON: FOUR PRO-SYRIAN GENERALS ARRESTED OVER ASSASSINATION OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER RAFIK AL-HARIRI / SYRIA INVITES A UN OFFICIAL TO DAMASCUS TO INVESTIGATE

Record ID: 276723

  • Title: LEBANON: FOUR PRO-SYRIAN GENERALS ARRESTED OVER ASSASSINATION OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER RAFIK AL-HARIRI / SYRIA INVITES A UN OFFICIAL TO DAMASCUS TO INVESTIGATE
  • Date: 3rd September 2005
  • Summary: (BN12) ADLIEH, BEIRUT, LEBANON (SEPTEMBER 3, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF JUSTICE PALACE; POLICE OUTSIDE (5 SHOTS) 0.33 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABED AL HADY MAHFOUZ HEAD OF NATIONAL MEDIA COUNCIL SAYING "The detention of the four generals is a kind of confirmation of suspicions but that doesn't mean that it proves they are guilty -- the final wo
  • Embargoed: 18th September 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA4C8TP9O9SJYERRFDSSLMA1L4P
  • Story Text: Lebanon arrests four generals over assassination of former PM al-Hariri
    while Syria invites a UN official to Damascus to investigate.


    A Lebanese magistrate issued formal arrest warrants on Saturday
    (September 3, 2005) against four pro-Syrian generals charged with murder over the
    assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, judicial
    sources said.

    They said Judge Elias Eid issued the warrants after interrogating all
    four men detained on Tuesday (August 30) on the recommendation of a U.N.

    investigator leading an international probe into the killing of Hariri and 20
    others in February.

    The four men are charged with murder, attempted murder and carrying out
    a terrorist act.

    Defence lawyers are now expected to ask that the men who headed the
    main security agencies when Hariri was killed be released on bail while
    investigations continue, they said.

    Eid questioned for three hours Republican Guard chief Brigadier General
    Mustafa Hamdan, a close aide of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

    Meanwhile, Syria invited to Damascus on Saturday (September 3) a UN
    official whose probe into the killing of al-Hariri has led to the arrest by
    Lebanon of four pro-Syrian generals on murder charges.

    Damascus has said it will cooperate fully with the U.N. inquiry led by
    Mr Detlev Mehlis, who has asked to interview Syrian officials in connection
    with the February 14 assassination that transformed Lebanon's political
    landscape.

    Hariri's assassination sparked major anti-Syrian protests that forced
    Damascus to bow to international pressure to end its 29-year military presence
    in Lebanon in late April.

    Many Lebanese blame Syria and its Lebanese allies for the killing, but
    Damascus denies any role.

    Calls for Lahoud to resign have grown since the detention of Hamdan,
    the only Lebanese security chief to keep his job after parliamentary elections
    in June ushered in an anti-Syrian majority for the first time since the end of
    the civil war.

    Eid also questioned the former head of General Security Major General
    Jamil al-Sayyed, once the most powerful of the pro-Syrian security chiefs.

    Lebanese police detained Hamdan and Sayyed, along with former police
    chief Major General Ali Hajj and ex-military intelligence chief Brigadier
    General Raymond Azar on Tuesday.

    The U.N. team questioned them before handing them over to the Lebanese
    authorities, but judicial sources said the Lebanese magistrate had not been
    given access to all the evidence, witnesses or witness statements.

    U.N. investigators also searched the Beirut offices of the Baath Party,
    the Lebanese branch of Syria's ruling party and questioned its leader Assem
    Qanso as a witness in the case.


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