In an interview with the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal, Detlev Mehlis, first commissioner of the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) for investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, revealed that under him, the commission found that Rafiq Al-Hariri had received "serious threats" from senior Syrian regime officials. He also stated that on more than one occasion, the Syrian regime had refused to cooperate with the commission.
The following are excerpts from the interview: [1]
Al-Hariri Received Threats from Syrian Regime
In the interview, Mehlis rejected claims by the Lebanese opposition, headed by Hizbullah, that under him the commission had concealed other directions of inquiry (besides Syria), in favor of directions implicating the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon. He said, "At first, the commission examined all lines of inquiry, but later on, helped by witnesses and evidence, it determined the motive for the assassination. It began to become clear that former prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri had received serious threats from the Syrian regime - and these threats were repeated by [Lebanese Druze leader] Walid Al-Mu'allem at Al-Hariri's home in Qouraitem [Palace]."
Syria Didn't Comply with Commission's Request to Question Syrian Minister Buthayna Sha'ban
Mehlis also said: "When I was in Beirut, I read an interview with Syrian Minister Buthayna Sha'ban in which she claimed that she had information that it was Israel that had assassinated Al-Hariri. I hastened to ask for judicial assistance from the Syrian authorities. I did this so that it would be possible for the investigative commission to hear directly from Sha'ban, and to obtain from her the information regarding Israel's involvement in the crime, and thus investigate it. But the Syrians never responded to my request."
Four Lebanese Officers Arrested Based on Testimony Regarding Their Involvement in Assassination
In the interview, Mehlis also mentioned the four Lebanese army officers - Gen. Jamil Al-Sayyed, Brig.-Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, Gen. 'Ali Al-Hajj, and Brig.-Gen. Raymond 'Azar - who were arrested in Lebanon at his recommendation for suspected involvement in the assassination, and detained from 2005 until their recent release on the commission's instructions. Mehlis said that the recommendation to arrest them "was not based solely on the testimony of the [Syrian] witness Zuheir Muhammad Al-Sadiq, [2] but also on other testimony, including that of Gen. H. and of a reliable witness who quoted [Brig-Gen.] Mustafa Hamdan regarding the intention 'to send Rafiq Al-Hariri on a trip'..."
According to Mehlis, the officers' arrest followed the obtaining of information by raids on the generals' homes, which turned up $50,000 and a dozen different passports in the home of Gen. Jamil Al-Sayyed. It was also discovered that Brig.-Gen. Mustapha Hamdan had planned to go with Gen. Jamil Al-Sayyed to the U.S.
Mehlis said, "If Al-Sayyed had gone to Syria and Hamdan had gone to the U.S. - which has no judicial agreements with Lebanon - and the testimony of Zuheir Muhammad Al-Sadiq and other witnesses was revealed two weeks later, what would I have replied to those who would have asked me why I let them go when I possessed this information? [What would I have said to those who] would have claimed that I had enabled them to leave the country?..."
Syria Didn't Reply to Commission's Request to Re-question Syrian Witness Who Changed His Story after Returning to Syria
Referring to the affair of Syrian witness Husam Husam, who at first blamed Syria for the assassination and then retracted his statements on Syrian television, Mehlis said: "When Husam Husam appeared in the television interview, I asked Syria for judicial help to investigate him over his new and unofficial statements - but I got no positive response regarding cooperation. I wanted to know whether [Husam] was telling the truth when he was in Lebanon, or after he returned to Syria. And if he was not telling the truth in Lebanon, I wanted to know why he gave the commission the testimony that he did, and who sent him to us so that we would investigate him."
"I wanted to know who helped him return to Syria, and how he did so. Perhaps he awoke from sleep and realized that he loved his country, and went there, where they took him to their hearts and asked him to speak to public opinion on television." [3]
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), May 8, 2009.
[2] Muhammad Zuheir Al-Sadiq was a former Syrian military intelligence officer who testified before the commission in 2005, saying that Syrian intelligence was responsible for the assassination. During the investigation, Al-Sadiq told the commission that he himself was involved in planning the assassination. For some time, Al-Sadiq was a central witness in the investigation; it was reported, among other things, that Mehlis's recommendation to arrest the four Lebanese officers was also based on his testimony. During 2005, Al-Sadiq fled to France, and in October of that year he was arrested there by French authorities, after Lebanon's prosecutor-general issued an international arrest warrant against him for involvement in the assassination. However, the French authorities refused to extradite him to Lebanon because they feared that he would face a death sentence. It should be noted that the pro-Syrian Lebanese media reported, also in 2005, that Al-Sadiq had told the French authorities that his testimony against the Syrian regime was false and that it had been fabricated in coordination with the March 14 Forces. In March 2008, it was reported that Al-Sadiq had disappeared from France, but in April 2009 it was reported that he had been arrested in the UAE.
[3] Husam Husam was a Syrian national who testified before the commission, stating that the Syrian regime was behind the assassination. However, in November 2005, after he returned to Syria, he appeared on Syrian television and said that Sa'd Al-Hariri and his associates had paid him to give false testimony.
