|
Hariri Report Discredited, UN Questions Syrians
 |
|
Mehlis has accused top Syrian officials of co-planning the murder of Hariri.
|
DAMASCUS,
November 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The UN
team probing the killing of ex-Lebanese premier Rafiq Al-Hariri was to
question top Syrian officials in Vienna Tuesday, November 29, as
Damascus demanded that a UN report implicating them over the February
murder be revised after state television broadcast the apparent
recanting of a key witness.
The
Vienna interrogations follow a deal reached last week between Syria
and the United Nations on the venue amid heightened pressure on
Damascus to cooperate with the investigation headed by German
magistrate Detlev Mehlis.
"Yes,
they are meeting Tuesday in Vienna," Kenzo Oshima, the Japanese
ambassador to the United Nations, was quoted as telling Lebanese L'Orient-Le
Jour newspaper.
Oshima
heads a committee which could decide on possible sanctions against
Syria if it fails to cooperate with the probe.
A
source close the case told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that Syria's
military intelligence chief Assef Shawkat, President Bashar Al-Assad's
brother-in-law, was not among the five to be interrogated.
An
interim report by Mehlis implicates several top regime officials in
both Damascus and Beirut over the murder, which triggered
international pressure that led Syria to pull out its troops from
Lebanon in April after a 29-year military presence.
Among
those expected to be questioned is Syria's former head of military
intelligence in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazaleh.
Revision
 |
|
Hassam told state television that he had testified against Syrian officials under duress.
|
Meanwhile,
Syria demanded Monday, November 28, that the Mehlis report be revised
after state television broadcast the apparent recanting of a witness.
Ibrahim
Darraji, who heads Syria's own separate investigation into the
killing, said the new testimony from Kurdish former intelligence agent
Hassam Taher Hassam spelled the collapse of last month's findings by
Mehlis which prompted a Security Council resolution against Damascus.
"From
a legal point of view, the Mehlis report has collapsed," Darraji
told reporters at a joint news conference with the purported witness
in Damascus.
"It
was based on the testimony of two key witnesses -- Mohammed Zuheir --
who is now jailed in France and Hassam," he said, standing
alongside Hassam.
"The
ball is now in the Mehlis commission's court -- they based their
findings on the statements of one person and he has now set the record
straight."
In
the lengthy TV interview, Hassam told state television that he had
testified against the brother and brother-in-law of President Bashar
Al-Assad only under duress.
"Maher
Al-Assad and Assef Shawkat were the main officials in their sights ...
they asked me to speak out against them and I said that they were the
ones who ordered the murder," he said.
He
said he regretted making what he described as the "entirely
false" statements that he had given.
The
slain premier's son and heir, Saad, now leader of the largest bloc in
the Lebanese parliament, had offered him around one million dollars,
he alleged.
Hariri
dismissed the accusation out of hand, describing it as a
"desperate attempt to derail the inquiry" of the United
Nations into his father's murder.
“Everything
that this person has said is lies," said a statement released by
his office in Beirut.
Voluntary
 |
|
"We'll
let an independent investigator, Mr Mehlis, make the decisions about
what is credible and what is not credible," said McCormack.
|
A
statement from the UN commission confirmed that Hassam had testified
before it but added that he had volunteered his testimony and had even
expressed fear about the repercussions from the Syrian authorities.
"Hassam
first approached the UN International Independent Investigation
Commission at the end of June 2005 and identified himself as a former
Syrian intelligence officer in Lebanon," the statement said.
"In
his witness statement signed and dated September 1, 2005, Mr Hassam
stated: 'I am here voluntarily to give a statement to the UNIIIC. I
have not been threatened or forced to come here, nor have I been
offered any promises or incentives to do so.
"'I
understand that by giving knowingly false information in this witness
statement I may commit a crime against the laws of the Republic of
Lebanon,'" the statement quoted him as saying.
The
commission insisted it had "never offered or provided" any
incentive for testimony and added that, according to Hassam's own
statements, it was the Syrian authorities that he was afraid of.
"On
several occasions Mr Hassam expressed fear to UNIIIC that he and his
family could be harmed by Syrian security elements," its
statement said.
The
United States declined comment Monday on Syria's call to revise the UN
report.
But
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We'll let an
independent investigator, Mr Mehlis, make the decisions about what is
credible and what is not credible and what should be included in his
report."
|
