Syria proposes venues for Hariri probe interviews

12 Nov 2005 09:15:39 GMT
Source: Reuters

DAMASCUS, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Syria has proposed Cairo, Vienna and Geneva as venues for U.N. investigators to question six Syrian officials in a probe into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, a Syrian official said on Saturday.

The U.N. investigating team led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis had requested to interview the Syrian officials in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed in a bomb blast in February.

The U.N. investigation has implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese officials in Hariri's killing. The six that Mehlis's team want to interview include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's powerful brother-in-law and military security chief, Major General Assef Shawkat.

"Syria has proposed several venues for the meetings ... Cairo, Vienna and Geneva. President Bashar al-Assad has said Syria will cooperate with the international investigation," the official told Reuters, without giving further details.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L12442521.htm

Does holding the questioning in Vienna or Geneva instead of Beirut already amount to a "material breach" of the Security Council resolution?

I'm not quite sure what to make of the following reports:

Syrian Al Qaeda member Detained at Turkey: Foreign investigators asked me to render fake testimony against Syria in favor of Mehlis

Syrian Louai AL-Saqa, convicted of belonging to "Al-Qaeda" and currently imprisoned in Istanbul, has accused foreign sides of compelling him to present a fake testimony to the international investigator in the assassination of the late president Rafik Hariri.

I n a written message he sent to "Al-Hayat" through his Turkish lawyer Othman Karahan, Al-Saqa said that some foreign investigators, spoke with him in English, who interrogated him three weeks ago, have offered him a bid to escape him plus US 10 million Dollars in order to say that one of Syrian officials asked him to recruit a suicide bomber from Iraq to assassinate Rafik Al-Hariri and to claim responsibility later on during his existence in Iraq.

Al-Saqa added that when he refused the offer, one of the investigators made a phone call in which he said that the operation did not score success and demanded that Mehlis should temporarily drop the name of the official out of the report. (...)

The Turkish lawyer stressed that his client enjoys credibility and he has no interest to defend the Syrian regime who classified him as a terrorist.

http://www.champress.net/english/index.php?page=show_det&id=1065

It's a bit odd for the official to make that "phone call to Mehlis" in front of al-Saqa, isn't it?

The lawyer has already spoken to al-Jazeera and, naturally, the story is all over the Syrian media:

Damascus: Saqa is an evidence of Syria's acquittal

Syrian media and political sources have accorded much attention as regards the of the Statement of the Turkish lawyer Othman Karhan to Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel the day before that his Syrian client Louai Saqa, detained in one of the Istanbul jails, has informed him that he received an offer from unknown people, who visited him in the prison, to make a false testimony against Syria regarding the assassination of Hariri only to take a great deal of money (US 10 millions Dollars).

Karhan said that his client refused the offer and denied accusations of his meeting with a senior security officer in Damascus and outside Syria with the aim of preparing and planning for an operation to kill ex-Lebanese Premier Rafik Al-Hariri.

The said sources indicated that this attempt ensures the accuracy and credibility of what President Bashar Al-Assad cited in his speech as regards that they are seeking to find false witness and not a true one .This is crystal evidence that Syria is acquittal. (...)

Sources made it clear that this scandal is added to the scandal of the false witness Mohammad Sidiq, who is currently arrested in France, and this is clear evidence that Syria is not involved in the crime.

http://www.champress.net/english/index.php?page=show_det&id=1080