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Syria tries to discredit death probe
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-29 09:08
Syria sought to discredit a U.N. probe into the assassination of Lebanon's
former prime minister Monday, after a man who purported to be a crucial witness
claimed that he gave false testimony implicating Damascus.
The probe's finding that Syria must have known about — and may have been
involved in — Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination has "completely collapsed"
because of the revelation, said Ibrahim Daraji, spokesman for the Syrian inquiry
into Hariri's murder.
"Politically and judicially ... I believe the report has been dealt a
knockout blow," Daraji said of the probe's findings, delivered to the U.N.
Security Council in October.
Daraji spoke at a news conference alongside Husam Taher Husam, the man who
had claimed in an interview on Syrian state television late Sunday that Hariri's
family had bribed him to accuse top Syrian officials of Hariri's murder.
He claimed that he was the witness indentified in the probe's report as a
former employee of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, who had delivered crucial
information about the purported involvement of the Lebanese and Syrian
intelligence services in Hariri's slaying.
The U.N. investigation, led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, confirmed
Husam was a witness who had voluntarily approached the commission. A U.N.
statement released in Beirut Monday said the commission "does not offer, and has
never offered or provided, any compensation in exchange for information."
Syrians in Damascus watch as Husam Taher
Husam, a Syrian, who is better known as the 'hooded witness' in the U.N.
probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
Hariri, speaks during a press conference broadcast live on Syrian TV.
[AP] | Husam alleged that Hariri's son Saad met him several months ago and then,
through an aide, offered him $1.3 million to testify. An aide of Saad Hariri's
also dismissed the claim.
"It is a desperate attempt by desperate people to mislead the investigation
and public opinion," Hammoud said on Hariri's Future TV from Argentina, adding
that Hariri has never met Husam.
Husam's allegations came days before five senior Syrian officials were due to
appear before the U.N. commission in Vienna. The officials, who have not been
named either by the commission or Syria, will be questioned in the U.N.
headquarters in the Austrian capital as part of an agreement reached after more
than two weeks of negotiations.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the U.N. Security Council did not want to
see a repeat of previous interviews, when Syrian officials "came with talking
points in effect for all their witnesses, they had minders there to make sure
that they said the right thing."
He refused to comment on Husam's claims except that the council would wait to
see what Mehlis had to say.
"The circumstances in which a witness can change his story happen all the
time in investigations," he said.
In its interim report, the commission implicated the Syrian and Lebanese
intelligence services in the bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others. Syrian
officials have for weeks tried to discredit the U.N. investigation as biased
against Syria.
Husam's name has previously appeared in Lebanese news reports that said he
gave evidence to the commission while wearing a hood to conceal his identity.
Husam claimed that Lebanese investigators had given him a text to deliver as his
own statement, took his photograph and threatened to release them to divulge his
identity.
Husam said he was told to prepare to travel to Vienna to testify against the
Syrian officials. Instead, he said, traveled to the Syrian border and took a
taxi to Damascus on Sunday.
Hariri's assassination, which many Lebanese blame on Syria, was the catalyst
for mass anti-Syrian street protests and intensified international pressure that
forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon, ending nearly three decades of
domination.
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