Syria seeks 33 arrest warrants over Hariri probe

BEIRUT (Agencies)
Warrant issued for former UN investigator: Lebanese general

A Lebanese general held for four years over the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri said late Sunday a Syrian judge had issued arrest warrants for 33 people over false testimony to investigators.

Jamil al-Sayyed, a pro-Syrian former security general, said a judge in Damascus issued the warrants in absentia for “the conspiracy of the false witnesses … during the investigation into the criminal assassination of Rafik al-Hariri.”

Those named in the warrants included German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who led the early stages of the United Nations investigation into Hariri’s killing in 2005, according to a statement issued by Sayyed’s office.

They also included Lebanese politicians close to Hariri’s son, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. His unity government has already been fractured by rows over the investigation, which is expected to issue indictments soon against members of the Shiite group Hezbollah for involvement in the attack.

Fasih al-Ashi, the attorney who represents Sayyed, told AP that a Syrian judge issued the arrest warrants Sunday after repeated state summons for the people concerned went ignored. He refused to provide more details or discuss the legal procedures involved.

Al-Sayyed filed the suit against people he says misled the investigation. He brought the case against them in Syria because he says he does not trust Lebanon’s judiciary, which he has accused of supporting “false witnesses.”

There was no confirmation from Damascus of any warrants, which could complicate Hariri’s rapprochement with Syria after it ended nearly three decades of military presence in Lebanon following an international outcry over his father’s killing.

Violating the “Lebanese sovereignty”

Sayyed was arrested shortly after the February 2005 bombing which killed Rafik Hariri and 22 others, but the special tribunal investigating the attack ordered his release last year because of lack of evidence.

He has said the United Nations investigation used fabricated testimony intended to point to the involvement of Syria and its supporters in Hariri’s killing, and has been seeking legal action against people he says were behind the false evidence.

Both Syria and Hezbollah deny any involvement in the killing and say the U.N. investigation has been politicized.

Lebanese police chief Ashraf Rifi, one of the 33 people named by Sayyed’s office, dismissed Sayyed’s announcement. “We will work to prevent the implementation of these warrants, which violate … Lebanese sovereignty,” he told Reuters.

Still, there are concerns the warrants could damage the recent reconciliation between Syria and Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the son of the slain ex-premier — who has traveled to Damascus five times in the past year in an effort to improve relations damaged by the assassination.

The warrants come amid heightened tensions and an escalating political crisis in Lebanon, fueled by the possibility that the Netherlands-based court probing the Hariri slaying could indict some Hezbollah members in the case.

Hezbollah and its backer, Syria, contend the tribunal has been poisoned by witnesses who have given false information. Tensions have increased over media reports that the indictments could be issued as early as this month.