DAMASCUS, 30 November 2005 — In an apparent campaign to discredit the initial findings of a UN inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, Syria called yesterday for evidence implicating Syrians to be scrutinized.
The UN Security Council has threatened Damascus with unspecified action unless it cooperates fully with the investigation into Rafik Al-Hariri’s Feb. 14 murder.
But a Syrian witness, Hosam Taher Hosam, has accused Lebanese officials of an elaborate scheme of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to testify falsely against Syria and said the inquiry’s initial findings rested largely on his lies. Syria has effectively endorsed Hosam’s statements, giving him a platform on state television on Sunday and arranging a news conference for him the next day.
A Foreign Ministry statement yesterday suggested that the interim report by chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis in October was flawed by reliance on Hosam’s testimony.
“Syria, expressing its deep concern over attempts by some to mislead the investigation, points out that seven of the articles of the report presented by the international committee to the Security Council are based on Hosam’s testimony,” it said.
In Lebanon, anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt called Syria’s actions a farce and accused it of trying to destabilize Lebanon’s security to undermine the inquiry.
“It seems they will use all means ... to shake up security to try to confuse the inquiry,” he told Reuters TV, saying Syria still had intelligence networks in Lebanon.
“We will not rest until we see the suspects behind bars,” Jumblatt said. “What does the timing of this person’s appearance mean? ... On the verge of the Vienna meeting, they are trying, and will not succeed, to shake Mehlis’s credibility. We trust Mehlis and the international investigation.” The UN investigators were expected to question five Syrians, including Syria’s former intelligence chief in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, in Vienna on Tuesday.
Hosam said he had been tortured, injected with drugs and offered $1.3 million by Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan Al-Sabaa to tell the investigators he had seen the truck used in Hariri’s killing in a Syrian-controlled military facility.
He also accused Hariri’s son Saad of offering him money to testify falsely and Jumblatt and Lebanese Telecoms Minister Marwan Hamadeh of arranging for other witnesses to lie. A spokesman for Saad has denied this and said Hosam had never met the Hariri family.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry urged the UN team and the Lebanese authorities to look into Hosam’s allegations and take into account his retraction of his testimony. Syria expected them to take steps to halt the “deception, forgery and extortion,” the statement said.
It said Damascus had also given the investigators documents to show that another witness, Mohammed Zuhair Al-Siddiq, was not credible, saying these had failed to get serious attention.
On Oct. 18, Lebanon accused Siddiq of involvement in Hariri’s killing and said he had misled UN investigators. The Foreign Ministry statement said: “Siddiq is a witness turned suspect ... but his false testimony remained part of the international investigation committee’s report on Oct. 25.” Mehlis has interviewed more than 500 people in connection with Hariri’s killing. His report named Siddiq but not Hosam.
