BEIRUT, 7 December 2005 — Two Syrian officers returned to Damascus yesterday after being questioned by UN investigators in Vienna over the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, diplomats said. Syria’s former intelligence chief in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, and an aide, Jamea Jamea, were questioned on Monday as part of a UN inquiry into the February assassination of Hariri in Beirut.
Three more Syrians, Lt. Gen. Thafer Youssef, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Karim Abbas and a retired officer, will be questioned before the end of today.
They will later fly back to Damascus, the diplomats said. Syria, which denies any role in the killing, agreed to let investigators quiz the men at UN offices in the Austrian capital after getting guarantees from permanent UN Security Council member Russia that they could return to Damascus afterwards, diplomats said.
An interim report in October by the chief UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis, suggested the Feb. 14 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people was planned by top Syrian security officials in Damascus and their Lebanese allies. Syrian President Bashar Assad told France 3 television on Monday he had “no doubt” that Syria would be proven innocent of involvement in Hariri’s killing.
Monday’s questioning focused on “determining the nature of the duties of the Syrian officers” in Lebanon before Hariri was murdered in a massive bomb blast on Feb. 14 that also killed 20 other people, Al-Hayat newspaper said, quoting unnamed sources.
The UN investigators “referred to recorded statements of phone conversations that took place between (Ghazaleh) and Lebanese political figures,” the sources told Al-Hayat.
They likewise tried to determine any links between the Syrian officers and some suspects in the case who have said they “contributed directly or indirectly in provoking or planning the assassination,” it said.
UN sources quoted by Al-Hayat said “the investigations may resume in a more comprehensive and precise manner at the start of next year.”
A diplomat in the Austrian capital said that Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor leading the probe into Hariri’s murder, did not take part in the interrogation.
Mehlis will step down shortly as chief UN investigator into the killing of Hariri but will remain available should the inquiry require his services, his spokesperson said yesterday. The spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said the date for Mehlis’ departure was not yet determined but added that the German prosecutor had made it clear when he accepted the job that he would stay on only for six or seven months.
The investigation into Hariri’s Feb. 14 murder was launched in June and Mehlis is expected to submit his findings to the UN Security Council on Dec. 12. Lebanon asked the world body last week to extend the inquiry’s mandate for six months. “When he (Mehlis) came, he said he would be committed for six or seven months. Therefore his mandate is about to end,” the spokesperson said in Beirut. “He will certainly be available if required but not as a full-time commissioner.”
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said yesterday in Cairo that there were ulterior motives behind the ongoing United Nations investigation into the assassination of Hariri. The goal of the investigation was to “bring about a negative change in the region through daily pressure, using legitimate and illegitimate means,” Sharaa was reported by Egypt’s official news agency MENA as saying.
