LEBANON: Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP Gebran Tueni in Beirut, UN inquiry further implicates Syria in Hariri death

Record ID: 689422

  • Title: LEBANON: Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP Gebran Tueni in Beirut, UN inquiry further implicates Syria in Hariri death
  • Date: 13th December 2005
  • Summary: (W2) BEIRUT, LEBANON (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PARLIAMENT VARIOUS OF TUENI AT PARLIAMENT
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAB2RRPKL14XOEJRWCOHPY8L00V
  • Story Text: A car bomb killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian lawmaker Gebran Tueni in Beirut on Monday (December 12), the morning after he returned from Paris where he had based himself in recent months fearing assassination.
    Several Lebanese politicians immediately blamed Syria and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would ask the United Nations to look into a spree of attacks that has rocked Lebanon over the past 14 months. Syria denies any role in the violence and said the latest killing was timed to smear it.
    "God bless the latest martyrs of Lebanon in light of the indiscriminate dictatorship of (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad. God bless Gebran Tueni and former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri," said Tueni's uncle, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who survived an attempt on his life last year.
    Police said Tueni, publisher of An-Nahar daily, was among four people killed in the explosion that destroyed his armoured sports utility vehicle as it was driving in the Mekalis area of mainly Christian east Beirut. More than 30 people were wounded.
    The bodies of Tueni, 48, his driver and a bodyguard were found in his car, charred beyond recognition. Assault rifles and military bags lay beside them in the wrecked vehicle.
    A previously unknown group calling itself "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant" claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement faxed to Reuters, saying the same fate awaited other opponents of "Arabism" in Lebanon. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim, whose wording looked designed to cast suspicion on Damascus.
    Tueni was killed just hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to receive a report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis, who has been looking into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
    The U.N. inquiry uncovered new evidence that reinforced its findings of Syria's involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a new report said on Monday. The report also said Syria had been "slow" to cooperate with his investigation, contrary to Security Council resolutions, and that the inquiry team had identified 19 suspects which it did not name.
    Siniora said he would ask the Security Council to investigate all the attacks and to form a tribunal to try suspects in the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
    "I will ask the Security Council to look into this terrorist crime, its dangers and the other crimes that have been committed since the attempted assassination of Minister Marwan Hamadeh in order to take the necessary steps and measures," he told reporters.
    "I will also ask for the formation of a court with an international character in the assassination of martyr Rafik al-Hariri because it has gone beyond personal assassinations. It is now threatening the destiny of a whole people and their future," he added following meetings with Arab and foreign diplomats.
    Lebanon's cabinet was to hold an emergency session shortly to discuss Tueni's killing, the third political murder in the country since Hariri's death sparked protests that prompted Syria to end a 29-year military presence in its neighbour.
    Security sources said a parked car packed with up to 100 kg (220 pounds) of dynamite was detonated remotely as Tueni's car passed, hurling it into another street dozens of metres away.
    Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said Tueni's murder was linked to the Mehlis report and suggested Syria was behind it.
    Mourners carried the body of Tueni in the streets outside the St. Gearges hospital in the capital as supporters gathered outside An-Nahar offices, near the site of the popular protests that followed Hariri's assassination.
    The U.S. embassy in Beirut condemned the latest killing, saying in a statement that "with this heinous act, the forces of oppression and tyranny have taken from the Lebanese people one of their greatest champions for liberty and freedom."
    Syria also condemned the attack which its official SANA news agency said was timed to implicate Damascus.
    Tueni, a fierce critic of Syria's policies in Lebanon who was elected to parliament this year, said in August he believed he was on a hit list for assassination. He had spent much of his time since then in Paris, but returned to Beirut late on Sunday.
    Tueni was married with four daughters.
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