Hariri's murder partly motivated by laundering and corruption
An article in Fortune highlights the liability of people at the highest levels, Syrian and Lebanese, who feared the reopening of the case about the collapse of al-Madina Bank.
Beirut (AsiaNews) The former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri, may have been killed to cover up money laundering, corruption and illegal affairs linked to terrorism, carried out through a Lebanese bank, al-Madina, which collapsed in 2003. This was alleged by the American magazine Fortune that cited as proof the reports of the UN inquiry into Hariri's murder. These state Saddam Hussein and the "most important people in Syria" were involved in the trafficking.
It may have been Hariri's intention to reopen the al-Madina dossier once he returned to power, that prompted the Syrian Secret Services to organise his assassination on 14 February 2005, an attack that also killed 20 other people.
Fortune claimed to have "bank documents" revealing the significant extent of Syrian involvement in the financial scandal. Spanning the nineties up until 2003, the article highlights the vast trafficking of "money, real estate, cars and jewels" that surrounded the collapsed bank. Through a giant "laundering machine", it was possible for "terrorist organisations, peddlers of West African diamonds, Saddam Hussein, and Russian gangsters" to reinsert their dollars into the international banking system.
From 2003 onwards, however, Syrian and Lebanese officials involved in the trafficking, feared Hariri may decide to reopen the case. The UN Commission of Inquiry advanced a hypothesis that some organisations involved in the assassination may have had the motive of hiding their involvement in the al-Madina affair. In the second report of Detlev Mehlis,
there is mention of a taped conversation in which General Rustom Ghazali, former head of Syria's secret services, accused Hariri of discussing Syrian corruption in a newspaper interview, apparently in violation of an agreement about the matter. Ghazale managed to lift a large quantity of documents from the bank safes, while Hariri's intention to reopen the case was confirmed by personalities close to the ex Lebanese premier, like the Finance Minister, Jihad Azour.
Marwan Hamade, former Telecommunications Minister and the ex premier's friend, is also "certain" there is more than Hariri's political opposition to Syria behind the assassination; he points to the al-Madina affair too. He was also the victim of a car bomb attack but he survived. "It was certainly one of the reasons. If he had been reelected, Hariri would have reopened the file, which we know goes directly to Assad through the presidential palace in Baabda", that is, the President of the Republic of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud.
.png)
