BEIRUT, 28 December 2005 — Lebanese authorities have arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of involvement in the killing earlier this month of anti-Syrian MP and newspaper magnate Gebran Tueni, a judicial source said yesterday. Abdel Kader Abdel Kader, 30, was arrested after he was questioned by military investigating magistrate Rashid Mezher over the Dec. 12 Beirut car bombing that killed Tueni, the source said.
Abdel Kader, who sold scrap metal from a patch of land he rented near the scene of the killing in east Beirut, was under suspicion because of phone calls he made immediately before and after the bombing.
Mezher has asked for Abdel Kader, the first suspect to be arrested over the killing, to continue to be held at military justice headquarters in Beirut for questioning. Many in Lebanon have attributed the killing of Tueni, 48, to Syria. Damascus condemned the bombing. Tueni, director of the An-Nahar daily, his driver and his bodyguard were killed a day after his return from France where he had spent some time for fear of an attempt on his life amid a spate of attacks on critics of Syria.
Thirty others were wounded in the blast that severely damaged nearby buildings. Tueni was instrumental in the campaign to end three decades of Syrian political and military domination of Lebanon and has been hailed as a “martyr” of the country’s fragile regained independence since Syrian troops left in April.
