Naharnet Newsdesk - Nine Syrian-Linked Suspects Rounded Up for International Interrogation into Hariri's Assassination

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Nine Syrian-Linked Suspects Rounded Up for International Interrogation into Hariri's Assassination

Nine Syrian-linked suspects were rounded up in daybreak house raids in Beirut Tuesday for interrogation by an international investigating committee trying to pin ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassins.
Most prominent among the detainees were Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, former head of Lebanon's General Security Department known as Surete Generale, Col. Ali Hajj, ex-commander of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, former commander of the army's intelligence service.

All were taken under heavy escort to the countryside headquarters of the investigating U.N. commission headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis in Monteverde, a summer resort overlooking Beirut. By nightfall there was no word whether any of them was released.

Prime Minister Fouad Seniora told reporters earlier in the day that Mehlis have informed him that the next step concerning the detainees would be decided in light of the outcome of their interrogation. 'All have been classified by the committee as suspects in the murder case,' he said.

Among those held in Monteverde were Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, commander of the army's Presidential Guard Brigade, his brother Majed Hamdan, Brigade Officer Jamal Mawas and 2 senior officers of the state security apparatus: Faisal al-Rashid and Khodr al-Tawil.

Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan is President Lahoud's closest aide de camp and is known as Lahoud's inseparable shadow. Hamdan, physically a giant of a man, has long been a fixture in official delegations Lahoud had taken with him on state visits abroad.

Hamdan shadowed the president in Pope John Paul's funeral in the Vatican last April and Lahoud is reportedly planning to take Hamdan as a member of his entourage to the U.N. General Assembly annual session in New York next month.

Police also raided the Beirut house of former parliament member Nasser Kandil, who was Syria's noisiest propaganda drummer during its ruthless reign of Lebanon. But his wife told the raiders that her husband was in Syria. However, Kandil was reported to have returned from Damascus, crossing the Syria-Lebanon border and surrendering himself to the U.N. investigating committee in Monteverde.

Before the house raids were staged Mehlis sought the green light from Lebanon's State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who supplied the Berlin prosecutor with Lebanese police units to conduct the raids under Mehlis' personal superintendence.

The move signified that Mehlis has gone into the second stage of the investigation following his procedural report he submitted to the U.N. Security Council last Thursday.

'The countdown has finally begun for catching Hariri's assassins,' said Druze leader Walid Jumblat in a statement issued in Paris. He flew to the French capital Monday shortly after Lebanese lawmaker Gebran Tueni declared that the Mehlis commission had passed through Beirut authorities a list of politicians and journalists marked for assassination in Lebanon. Jumblat and Tueni were on the death list.

Most of Tuesday's detainees served in key security commands in Lebanon when Hariri was assassinated Feb. 14. They are all known to have been Syrian lackeys.

Beirut, 30 Aug 05, 10:40


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