The U.N.s probe into the assassination of Lebanons former prime minister Rafik Hariri isnt quite finished yet. But the new freely elected government is moving ahead and arresting agents of the old regime.
BEIRUT, Aug 30 (AFP) - Lebanon on Tuesday arrested three former pro-Syrian security chiefs over the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, the first major breakthrough in the probe six months after the attack that sent shockwaves through the nation.
The head of the presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan also turned himself in to UN investigators after Lebanon issued an arrest warrant against him.
The three arrested men -- former general security chief Jamil al-Sayed, ex-military intelligence boss Raymond Azar and former internal security head Ali al-Hage -- were also brought before the UN commission.
"These officials will be interrogated as suspects," Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said in a statement read on television.
Several other people were also arrested by Lebanese police and a warrant has been issued for former pro-Damascus minister and MP Nasser Qandil, who told AFP he was breaking off a working visit to the Syrian capital to appear before the commission.
They are the first major arrests in the probe into Hariri's killing, which plunged Lebanon into turmoil and increased the pressure on Syria to pull out its troops in April.
Justice Minister Charles Rizk said they were made at the request of the international commission headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis investigating the massive Beirut bomb blast that killed Hariri on February 14.
The assassination of the billionaire five-time prime minister was blamed by many in Lebanon on long-time powerbroker Syria and its allies in the Lebanese government at the time.
Damascus has also come under mounting international criticism over a failure to cooperate with the UN probe, which has questioned more than 240 people since it was created in April.
Hamdan, who was appointed by Damascus protege President Emile Lahoud shortly after he took office in 1998, was in June questioned as a suspect and his office and house searched by the UN team investigating the murder.
Lahoud himself has long denied allegations of complicity in the assassination and resisted pressure to stand down.
But MP Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, said Lahoud was likely to lose his job as the truth unravels about the assassination.
"I think the countdown has started and I expect the fall of important figures in Lebanon and abroad," he told Radio-Orient in Paris. "I don't think he will be able to continue as president of Lebanon."
Michael_J_Totten
Iraq
February 2004
AUG 30, 2005 02:25 PM