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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Sayyed: Syrian Judiciary Has Issued 33 Arrest Warrants in Absentia in False Witnesses Case

2010-10-05

[An Nahar] Former head of General Security Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed has been informed by his lawyer in Syria that "the first investigating judge in Damascus has issued 33 arrest warrants in absentia in the false witnesses case for judges, officers, politicians, journalists and individuals of Lebanese, Arab and foreign nationalities," Sayyed's press office announced Sunday. Detlev Mehlis, former head of the U.N. commission investigating ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder, and his aide Gerhard Lehmann are among the 33 people named by the Syrian warrants, Sayyed's press office noted. Leb's state-run National News Agency reported that the individuals whom arrest warrants have been issued for are: MP Marwan Hamade, ex-minister Charles Rizk; ex-MPs Bassem Sabaa and Elias Atallah; State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza; Judges Elias Eid and Saqr Saqr; Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi; Head of ISF's Intelligence Bureau Col. Wissam al-Hasan; Premier Saad Hariri's advisor Hani Hammoud; Col. Hussam al-Tannoukhi; Lt. Col. Samir Shehadeh; ambassador Johnny Abdou; former Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam; retired Col. Mohammed Farshoukh; Adnan al-Baba; Khaled Hammoud; journalists Hasan Sabra, Fares Khashan, Nuhad al-Ghaderi (Syrian), Abdul Salam Moussa, Ayman Sharrouf, Omar Harqous, Ahmed Jarallah (Kuwaiti), Zahra Badran, Nadim al-Munla, Hamid al-Gheriafi; former head of the U.N. commission investigating ex-PM Rafik Hariri's murder, Detlev Mehlis, and his aide Gerhard Lehmann; and witnesses Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura, Akram Shakib Murad, Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq and Abdul Baset Bani Audeh. On September 25, the Lebanese daily Ad Diyar reported that the Syrian judiciary was waiting for the appropriate time to send the warrants to its Lebanese counterpart. "If the Lebanese judiciary does not comply with the Syrian demand, then Syria will take the appropriate measures to have Interpol issue arrest warrants for those individuals," the newspaper added. Sayyed has accused international powers of standing behind claims that Hizbullah murdered ex-PM Rafik Hariri. "The game is bigger than (Premier) Saad Hariri. It is related to international schemes, starting from the new Middle East, which used Rafik Hariri's blood to strike Syria," Sayyed said in remarks published Sunday by the Syrian daily al-Watan. "But today, after failure of the plot, they moved to accuse the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... seeking a new scheme based on creating a Sunni-Shiite strife to divert attention from the struggle against the Israeli enemy and transfer this conflict to one between Arabs and Mohammedans themselves instead of having Israel as their common enemy. " Sayyed said "some" surrounding Hariri from Leb and "a large portion" from outside the country convinced the prime minister that Syria and its allies in Leb are the ones who killed his father. "This is why he (Hariri) allowed, contributed to, turned a blind eye and supported a political, media, judicial and security structure of his advisers who chose Syrian false witnesses picked from Lebanese prisons, and provided them with temptations, particularly Zuhair Siddiq, Hussam Hussam and others, to accuse Syria and the four Lebanese officers (Sayyed one of them)," said the former detainee who was jailed for nearly four years in Leb for alleged involvement in Hariri's killing. "But soon after our release and the fall of the hypothesis that Syria is behind the killing, they shifted their accusation within a month from Syria to Hizbullah, and this is no coincidence, of course, where police intelligence under Col. Wissam al-Hasan began arresting Israeli spy networks immediately after the release of the four generals in April 2009." Sayyed said the Government of national unity agreed to finance the Special Tribunal for Leb "because we thought we were paying for justice and truth, not for an international tribunal looking for politics." "But we found out four years later that the international law used the money to hit Syria and a portion of Lebanese through the false witnesses," he said. Describing Druze leader Walid Jumblat as "unstable," Sayyed said he has no faith in the Progressive Socialist Party chief. "I don't believe everything Walid Jumblat says, whether he is with us or against us, because he changes his positions from one moment to another," Sayyed said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Heirs of Hariri bodyguards demand dismissal of Lebanese judge

2007-06-30

The heirs of four slain bodyguards who died in the 2005 car bombing that killed Lebanon's former Premier Rafik Hariri have demanded the dismissal of Judge Elias Eid as investigating magistrate in the case. Mohammad Mattar, the lawyer for the heirs, on Wednesday filed a request that Judge Eid be replaced. Mattar cited Eid's alleged "intention" to release former security officials Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, before the conclusion of investigations, The Daily Star said. It said Mattar also cited Eid's "overly friendly relations" with the lawyers and families of the four officers charged with involvement in the Hariri assassination. They are, in addition to Sayyed, the former head of Lebanon's General Security Department, and Azar, former commander of the army's intelligence service, Brig. Gen. Ali Hajj, ex-commander of the Internal Security Forces, and Brig. Gen. Mostafa Hamdan, commander of the army Presidential Guard Brigade. Mattar said Eid's ability to continue with the case was further thrown into doubt after his recent admittance to hospital for stress reasons. Judge Jihad al-Wadi, head of the Court of Appeals, on Thursday referred Mattar's request to the head of the 10th District, Judge Sami Mansour, who in turn informed Eid, the paper said. Eid will have to respond to the request – either by stepping down or by rejecting it -- within three days. The follow-up committee of the Hezbollah-led opposition said the motion was a clear attempt to improperly influence a judge. Sayyed submitted a new memorandum to Eid Thursday through his lawyer Akram Azouri. The memorandum detailed what he referred to as "factors hindering justice" in the case. Sayyed demanded that Eid look into previously submitted requests that he be released from prison.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Jamil Sayyed interrogated for five hours

2006-02-22

Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid interrogated Jamil Sayyed, the arrested former chief of the Surete Generale, "for five-and-a-half hours Saturday," according to Lebanese judicial sources. Sayyed is one of four former top security chiefs who have been charged with planning, or executing the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and of carrying out terrorist acts. The four officers, Sayyed, Raymond Azar, former head of Army Intelligence, Ali Hajj, former head of the Internal Security Forces, and Mustafa Hamdan, former head of the Presidential Guards, have been questioned several times since their arrest last August. The sources added that Azar, Hajj and Hamdan will also be questioned "based on new information," without elaborating on what that information was. The four former security chiefs are currently detained in Roumieh prison awaiting trial, with Hamdan, Hajj and Azar's several petitions for release on bail denied by the Lebanese Judiciary. Meanwhile, Serge Brammertz, the head of the UN probe investigating the assassination of Hariri, was flown by a helicopter to Lebanon's Southern borders where he met with Alain Pelligrini, the head of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon. According to Lebanon's National News Agency, "Brammertz discussed the position of the UNIFIL forces." Brammertz is expected to head to Syria by the end of the month, as the international community has demanded that Syria offer full cooperation to the UN probe and present officials and citizens named by Brammertz for questioning. Brammertz is expected to present the UN with his first report on the case by mid-March. The sources speculated the report would contain information about the level of Syrian cooperation in the investigations.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Brammertz reportedly has evidence to identify those involved in Hariri killing

2006-01-28

Judge Serge Brammertz, the newly appointed head of the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, has informed Lebanese officials that the dossier handed over to him by his predecessor Detlev Mehlis contains enough information enabling him to identify those responsible for the murder and demand they stand trial. According to informed sources, Brammertz indicated that he intended to complete his mission within the next two or three months and prepare a final report to the UN Security Council. He also expressed hope the Lebanese judiciary would complete its work and chief investigating magistrate Judge Elias Eid would prepare a bill to indict those killers before the summer in order to hand over all the evidence to the international tribunal that will be set up to try the defendants. The UN has already began discussions with the government in Beirut on the nature of the tribunal, the identity o the judges, its venue and remit. The Belgian judge believes that “Syria represents the principal obstacle for the UN commission since it has yet to give a clear and firm response as to whether it will cooperate in a constructive way with the international investigation team. Syria’s promises have yet to materialize and the statements of officials in Damascus are not matched by deeds. What is required is an answer to whether President Bashar Assad will allow the probe team to meet Foreign Minister Faruq al Sharaa and question his brother-in-law Asef Shawkat, head of military intelligence”, the sources added. Brammertz is set to refuse a Syrian request to sign a protocol of cooperation with Damascus because he believes the text of UN Resolution 1636 is clear and stipulates that Syria should cooperate with the international probe. Meanwhile, diplomatic sources at the UN headquarters have indicated that the investigation team “has recovered the voice recordings of Syrian officials that include threats to Prime Minister Hariri. These recordings are one of the most important peices of evidence in the investigation that [Former investigator] Detlev Mehlis wanted to keep confidential.” The same sources predicted that the “Syrian leadership would have become aware of these recordings and was, therefore, preventing its officials from meeting with the investigators. It also considers the demand to question the leadership as an infringement on national sovereignty.” National sovereignity appears to be the last resort of the incompetent dictator.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Judge refuses to release Hamdan, Azar

2005-11-16

Chief Lebanese Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid refused on Tuesday to release two former security chiefs awaiting trial for their possible role in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Naji Boustani, the defense attorney of both Mustapha Hamdan and Raymond Azar, filed a motion on Saturday for his clients' release on grounds they were being detained on "suspicions and not hard evidence." Sounds like a routine motion, routinely rejected... Hamdan is the former head of the Presidential Guards, while Azar formerly ran the country's Military Intelligence department. The two officials were officially charged on September 3, along with two other former generals, with "murder, attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act." I think there'd have been a fair amount of hell to pay had they been sprung. Time enough for the lawyers to muddy the waters... Eid also refused to release Mahmoud Abdel-Al, a senior official in the Islamic Al-Ahbash organization. Lead UN investigator Detlev Mehlis linked Abdel-Al to suspicious phone calls made shortly before and after Hariri's murder. Mehlis is due to arrive in Beirut by Wednesday night after a short vacation in Berlin.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Two Leb MPs face losing immunity

2005-11-02

Lebanese security sources revealed Tuesday the UN probe has sent requests to Speaker Nabih Berri "to interrogate and possibly detain two current MPs after lifting their immunity." The sources added that there will be a large wave of "questioning officials and detaining others, most probably those whose names were included in Mehlis' report. But this will happen after the Eid al-Fitr, which is when the joint international-Lebanese investigations will resume." Shortly before Mehlis' arrival, local Arabic daily An-Nahar said a Syrian prisoner held in Tibnin jail in South Lebanon for a theft felony was brought by Lebanon's elite Internal Security Forces, "The Black Panthers", to the UN probe's headquarters in Montverde. The prisoner was identified as Nidal Hikmat Soljok. Hmmm... Yasss... The infamous Notary Soljok... An-Nahar said that he was interrogated by the UN investigators for hours, adding that there was no explanation why he was summoned. Judicial sources said some Lebanese investigating magistrates and the State Prosecutor met with UN investigators Tuesday and exchanged documents. Also on Tuesday, Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid listened to the deposition of two witnesses in the Hariri case. The witnesses' names were not disclosed.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Islamist named in Mehlis report held

2005-10-23

Lebanese police have arrested an Islamist who was being investigated by a UN commission probing the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, security officials said. Mahmud Abd al-Al, a member of the pro-Syrian Al-Ahbash Sunni Muslim Orthodox group, was detained in Beirut early on Saturday upon orders from Lebanese Magistrate Elias Eid. His arrest was the first since chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis released his findings into the investigation of al-Hariri's 14 February slaying in a Beirut car bombing that killed at least 20 others. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Eid based his decision to detain Abd al-Al upon a recommendation from chief UN investigators. Mehlis's report alleged that Abd al-Al called pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on his mobile telephone minutes before the blast that killed al-Hariri. In a reasonable world, that'd mean Emil was going down. We'll see how much sweet reason applies in Leb. So far there hasn't been a lot... Lahoud denied receiving such a call. "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Wudn't me." The UN inquiry claimed that shortly after, Abd al-Al also contacted one of four Lebanese pro-Syrian generals who have since been arrested in the probe. Police also seized unspecified documents during the raid on Abd al-Al's home, the officials said without elaborating. Abd al-Al's brother is a prominent figure in the Al-Ahbash group, Ahmad Abd al-Al, whom Mehlis identified as a "key figure" in the ongoing investigation. Ahmad Abd al-Al had extensive contacts with top Lebanese security officials before and after the blast, and tried to hide information from investigators, according to the UN report. He was recently arrested in Beirut in connection with a weapons depot discovered in southern Lebanon in July.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

20 suspected in Hariri Murder

2005-10-19

With a few days remaining until UN investigator Detlev Mehlis submits his report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Lebanon was anxiously awaiting its conclusions and readying itself for its repercussions, locally and regionally. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said earlier Monday he would wait until the German jurist hand over his report before considering an official Lebanese request issued last Thursday to extend the probe for a further two months. “I have spoken to Mehlis but I will wait for his full report to be able to make a judgment whether to extend the mandate or not,” Annan said. “And if we do extend the mandate, what specifically will it entail and what will they need to do”, remains to be seen. Annan is expected to obtain a copy of the report on Friday along with Security Council members. Commenting on the likelihood of politicizing the report, as rumored in political and media circles, Annan told Asharq al Awsat, “I hope the report will not be political” and described it as technical. “I know there has been a lot of political commentary and lots of discussions about it but from where I sit, I am determined to make it as technical as possible and not allow a politicization of the process,” Annan said. It is expected the Security Council will meet Mehlis behind closed doors, with the United Kingdom’s envoy, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, indicating the Council would study the report before agreeing on the necessary steps to take. “The next step would be to respond to the report but, until now, no one has a clear indication of what it will contain,” he said. Despite the secrecy surrounding the report, senior Lebanese sources revealed that Mehlis, “has uncovered the truth and will name things as they are. He will present the facts backed by evidence from gathered from testimonies, events in the run- up to the murder and afterwards, and expert analysis of the scene of the crime and the area surrounding including the bottom of the sea. All this has reinforced the investigation and given it a chance to succeed.” “The truth, known to the UN investigator only, has yet to be fully shared with Lebanese jurists. Mehlis told public prosecutor Judge Said Mirza and magistrate Judge Elias Eidof the headlines of the investigation but kept to himself the details and facts which will feature in the report presented to the Security Council on Friday,” the sources said. According to the sources, Mehlis will discuss possible Syrian involvement in the assassination and will indicate that Damascus did not cooperate fully with the investigation as the regime subjected his team to constant supervision which hampered their work and the testimonies they obtained. The UN investigator was expected to request the Security Council issue a resolution obliging Damascus to question Syrian officials outside Syria to try and match their testimonies with information in his possession. Mehlis, the sources revealed, had given political and judicial figures in Lebanon a list of twenty suspects, including security officials, former politicians, and civilians, including Syrian officers. He recommended the men be arrested given their role in planning the murder and proposing Hariri be killed after attempts to isolate him politically, through elections, and judicially, by targeting those close to him, failed.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

France Arrests Witness in Hariri Probe

2005-10-17

PARIS (AP) - Police arrested a former Syrian intelligence officer who is considered an important witness in a U.N. investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, officials said Monday. Mohammed Zuhair Al-Siddiq was taken into custody Sunday in the Paris area by France's DST counterintelligence service, police said. He was the subject of an international arrest warrant and is expected to be extradited, the officials said. The arrest warrant, issued by Lebanese Magistrate Elias Eid, accused Al-Siddiq of giving false testimony and misleading the U.N. investigation, judicial officials in Lebanon said. Al-Siddiq has been billed by Arab media as being a leading witness in the inquiry by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis of Hariri's Feb. 14 killing. Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Fatfat, a close Hariri ally, said Al-Siddiq's testimony was inaccurate "perhaps because he wanted it this way, either for personal interest or perhaps because he was planted to mislead the investigation." "It will all show in court," he told Voice of Lebanon radio, after being asked about the arrest. Beirut newspaper Al-Mustaqbal went further, alleging that Al-Siddiq was an accomplice in the planning and execution of the bombing that killed Hariri. The newspaper is owned by the Hariri family. The Syrians have sought to discredit 45-year-old Al-Siddiq as being a wanted man at home for fleeing his military service and for fraud, according to media reports. Better put him on "suicide watch", if you get my drift Hariri and 20 others were killed by a bomb that blew up his motorcade in central Beirut. The killing touched off a groundswell of protest in Lebanon and internationally, forcing Syria to withdraw all of its thousands of troops in Lebanon and end nearly three decades of domination of its tiny neighbor. The Mehlis team has named four Lebanese generals, all close to Syria, as suspects in the assassination. Lebanon has arrested them. Last week, one of seven Syrian officials who was questioned by the investigation, Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan, was wacked committed suicide.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Mehlis not happy with Syrian cooperation

2005-10-01

In the course of the ongoing international investigations into the Hariri killing, sources close to the Lebanese judiciary told The Daily Star that head of the UN probe Detlev Mehlis was "not satisfied with Damascus' level of cooperation." The sources cited examples of Syrian witnesses who were questioned by Mehlis under the supervision of high-ranking Syrian officers "who intimidated the witnesses preventing them from saying anything relevant in fear of being penalized by their superiors." Sources added that Mehlis, who is leaving Lebanon for Vienna within the next two days, "might pay a pop visit to Damascus to re-question witnesses, or summon those witnesses to Europe to debrief them." Also on Friday, Lebanese investigating Magistrate Elias Eid listened to the deposition of several "secret witnesses," while State Prosecutor Magistrate Saeid Mirza received reports of the primary investigations carried out by the Internal Security Forces investigators with the detained engineer technician Majed Khatib, who works for Lebanon's mobile phone-line company MTC Touch. Based on the deposition and the primary investigations, Mirza will decide whether to free Khatib or press charges against him and issue an arrest warrant. Khatib was detained based on charges of hiding information and "giving contradictory statements regarding several facts including the deletion of information from the company's central data regarding certain phone-lines." According to allegations made by the media, the eight related phone-lines are suspected to have belonged to the perpetrators and were only used before and during the assassination of Hariri. According to Al-Hayat newspaper on Friday, some Lebanese sources close to the UN probe ruled out the "suicide bomber possibility" in determining how Hariri was killed. Al-Hayat reported that a car filled with explosives was parked on the road which Hariri took. The newspaper also reported that mobile phones in the area were jammed following the explosion, which led to the formulation of the mobile phone-lines theory.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

More Leb arrests expected in Hariri investigation

2005-09-20

With Judicial Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid's questioning of four civilian witnesses Monday, judicial sources are expecting more arrests on Tuesday or Wednesday. The sources said State Prosecutor Said Mirza supervised the questioning of 10 suspects provided by the Internal Security Forces' Information Branch, all of which were cell phone dealers form either Beirut or Tripoli. It is believed calls were made in unison from several mobile phones before Hariri's assassination and then shut off together right after the bomb that killed him was detonated. The sources said Mirza examined the files of the suspects before sending them to the judicial investigator. The sources confirmed reports by An-Nahar that the international probe commission had raided the offices of one of the two major mobile companies in Lebanon, seizing some items they deemed suspicious. However, the sources did not reveal whether the company was the German-owned Alfa or the Kuwaiti-owned MTC. The sources also said the commission took the statements of several witnesses who had already visited its headquarters in Monteverde several times.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Eid interrogates witnesses in Hariri case

2005-09-14

Lebanese Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid evaluated the depositions of three witnesses in investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after he "interrogated them on Monday" according to judicial sources. The sources added that this is "the first time Eid has interrogated the three witnesses, who have already been questioned by the UN investigating team" looking into Hariri's murder. The sources added that the head of the UN team, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis "is currently preparing a road map for his next step of interrogating Syrian officers." Mehlis is expected to start his interrogation of the Syrian officers next week, after agreeing on Monday the procedure of the interrogations with the Syrian Foreign Ministry. It is understood that the former heads of Syria's recently dismantled intelligence apparatus in Lebanon will be among the those questioned by Mehlis. Brigadier Generals Ghazi Kenaan and Rustom Ghazaleh, in addition to Generals Jamaa Jamaa and Mohammad Khallouf, are expected to be top of the interrogation list. Kenaan is the current Syrian interior minister, but served as Damascus' military intelligence chief in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002. Ghazaleh was his successor until Syria's military and intelligence units withdrew from Lebanon on April 26, amid mounting international pressure. Jamaa and Khallouf were heads of central intelligence units in Lebanon during the 29 years of Syrian military presence in Lebanon. The sources added that Mehlis' questions "would most probably aim at establishing a link between the four arrested top Lebanese security officers and the Syrian officers." So far, Mehlis' interrogations have led to the arrest of Lebanon's Major General Ali Hajj, Brigadier General Raymond Azar, Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan, and Major General Jamil Sayyed, former heads of the Internal Security Forces, Military Intelligence, Presidential Guards and General Security, respectively. All four have been charged by the Judiciary with planning the assassination and are currently awaiting trial in Roumieh prison. Sources have indicated that more arrests are expected which is why some "24 prison cells have been prepared to hold the new detainees." On Tuesday, local newspaper Al-Balad reported that Sayyed had issued some 170 "normal and diplomatic" passports to Syrian intelligence agents and officers, and that the names of these personnel have been listed at borders and airports to stop them having freedom of movement. Former MP, Nasser Qandil, who was questioned several times by the UN team, remains a suspect while Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Seyassah reported that "this MP has given a primary and dangerous confession and has promised to reveal the perpetrators if he gets international protection." Al-Seyassah also reported that a source close to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the newspaper that some "six to 10 suspects have been named in the assassination," adding their punishment would be the "death penalty if they are prosecuted in Lebanon or a maximum of 30 years imprisonment if judged by an international tribunal." Al-Seyassah's UN sources added that there is an almost definite impression that the most important figures in the crime are four people "two Lebanese and two Syrians" naming these as "Hamdan, Sayyed, Kenaan and Ghazaleh."

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