U.N.: Syria, Lebanon Involved in Slaying
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago
A U.N. investigation concluded that high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to a report released Thursday.
The strongly worded report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said the two nations' intelligence services kept tabs on Hariri before his assassination by wiretapping his phone, and there was evidence a telecommunications antenna was jammed near the scene of the car bomb that killed him and 20 others on Feb. 14.
The decision to assassinate Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services," the report said.
Mehlis' 53-page report accused Syrian authorities of trying to mislead his investigation, and directly accused Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of lying in a letter sent to his commission.
The commission said Syria "has impeded the investigation and made it difficult to follow leads established by the evidence collected from a variety of sources."
"If the investigation is to be completed, it is essential that the government of Syria fully cooperate with the investigating authorities, including by allowing interviews to be held outside Syria and for interviewees not to be accompanied by Syrian officials," it said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave the team a three-month mandate when it began its work on June 16 but said it could be extended for three more months if necessary. In August, Mehlis received an extension beyond the original Sept. 15 deadline.
Mehlis said the investigation is not complete and must be continued with Lebanese judicial and security authorities in the lead.
Several lines of investigation still need to be pursued, he said. They include jamming devices in Hariri's convoy that were functioning at the time of the bombing. It appears there was interference with a telecommunication antenna at the crime scene at the time Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb, Mehlis wrote.
In Lebanon, authorities had increased security ahead of the report's findings. Many there blame Syria for the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri, a former prime minister whose motorcade was bombed on a Beirut street, killing him and 20 others. Syria has denied involvement.
Hariri's death led to demonstrations against Syria and magnified the international pressure on Damascus to withdraw its troops, which it eventually did. The Security Council approved a probe into Hariri's assassination on April 8.
The report said a Syrian witness living in Lebanon who claimed to have worked for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon told the commission that "senior Lebanese and Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri" about two weeks after the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution in September 2004 demanding the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
The witness, who was not identified, claimed a senior Lebanese security official went to Syria several times to plan the crime. At the beginning of January 2005, a high-ranking Syrian officer posted in Lebanon told the witness that "Hariri was a big problem to Syria."
"Approximately a month later the officer told the witness that there soon would be an `earthquake' that would re-write the history of Lebanon," the report said. |
