| "Lies, all lies! Can I go now? |
Damascus (SANA)- The witness Ibrahim Michel Jarjoura said he was forced to offer a false and fabricated testimony against Syria at the international investigation committee into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri because he was under threats and pressures to do so.
Jarjoura told Lebanese satellite NEW TV channel in an interview overnight that some Lebanese figures, particularly Deputy and Minister Marwan Hamada, forced him, in return to some promises, to retell the fabricated story to the international probe and the Lebanese Attorney Said Mirza as well as Bahiya Hariri, sister of the slain Hariri.
He said he is a Syrian national of Lebanese mother, adding he went to Lebanon to work and before that he looked for a job in Egypt, Iraq and Oman. He went back to Lebanon 14 days before late Hariri was assassinated with a Lebanese passport where he stayed there for six months at his grandfather house. The witness said the Lebanese military detained him at an army checkpoint six months after the expiry of his residence in Lebanon as written in the passport. After that, he was taken to prison where all his former inmates were released except him.
He added that three days later he was taken the Interrogation Department in Beirut where they told him he was working for the Syrian state security intelligence, and asked him if he had any information about the assassination of Hariri. He said he denied having any information on the issue, but despite that he was left to an assistant in the interrogation called Mohammad or Ahmad, to blackmail him.
Jarjoura said he was set free three days later, but a man called Wisam contacted him. This man turned out to be an intelligence agent and a bodyguard of Marwan Hamada as he took him to Hamadaâs house. He added that he was taken several times to Information and Interrogation security offices in Beirut, and finally he met Marwan Hamada in his house and was inspected by Wisam himself.
The witness said he told Hamada that he knew nothing and he wanted no money or anything else, but Hamada hit kicked and swore him badly and told his bodyguards to coerce him into assisting them to fabricate the story about the assassination of Hariri and implicate Syria. | "They did things to me. Terrible things!" |
He added that Hamada and others told him to go to Ms. Bahiya Hariri house and tell her that he had information about who killed late Hariri without saying that he met Hamada. They ordered him to tell Bahiya that he worked for the Syrian intelligence which trained him. âThey made me memorize what Iâm going to say to BahiyaâŠand tell her that Syrian General Hassan Khallouf and General Hassan Khalil had trained me to monitor figures in Lebanon, including the procession of Rafik Hariri.â He said he told her what was ordered to state, and thought of escaping to report to his government but failed to do so as he was under constant monitoring by the Lebanese security.
Jarjoura said they forced to add other names to the alleged list he was monitoring, including Saâad al-hariri, Walid Jumblatt, Marwan Hamada, Jebran Tueni, Samir Qassir, Layla Muawad, Elias Atallah, Fares Said, Boutross Harb and Samir franjieh. They also asked him to say that Syrian Gen. Hassan Khalil and Gen. Hassan Khallouf gave him these names by means of Brigadier Gen. Suheil Barakat of Palestine security branch.
He added that last time he gave his registered testimony before the investigation committee was in the presence of a Lebanese woman translator, saying they showed him the photo of President Bashar al-Assad, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Later they showed him the photo of Gen. Assef Shawkat and the four other detainees in Montverde but he didnât recognize them. Jarjoura said he was sadly forced into a perjury by swearing the Bible for the first time in his life, adding he is repentant to do so.
He pointed out that â I have more important things than his current testimony and would only disclose them to my government in Syria âŠ.I will not sell my country off âŠ.I received no money from anybodyâŠand I was not sentenced in LebanonâŠand all the false information came from Marwan hamada.â The witness said he sought several times to escape but couldnât. |
Anti-Syrian Lebanese figures including Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, and Marwan Hamadeh, the minister for telecommunications, are among six men on what a Lebanese newspaper said was a new hit-list. Al-Balad newspaper, quoting government and parliamentary sources, on Thursday named the other alleged targets "on the hit-list of people to be killed" as Wael Abu Faoor, Samir Franjieh, Elias Atallah and Farid Makari, all deputies.
Prime Minister