UN report: Syria "involved" in Hariri death
Damascus (AsiaNews /Agencies) - Western nations are expected to try to bring Syria before the United Nations Security Council after a report implicated it in the killing of former Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri.
After four months of investigations, the UN produced a report which concluded that
"many leads point directly towards Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination" of the Lebanese leader in February.
It finds that the car bombing had been planned for months and was carried out by a group with considerable resources and capabilities.
The inquiry also concludes that the assassination could not have been carried out without the collusion of senior Lebanese officials.
The investigators, led by German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, say the Syrian authorities co-operated only to a degree and accuse several interviewees of "trying to mislead the investigation".
They also accuse Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara of lying in a letter sent to the commission.
Syria has denied any involvement but the UN Security Council is expected to discuss the report early next week.
Investigators presented evidence the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Major General Asef Shawkat, could have figured in the plot, setting up known militant Ahmed Abu Adass as a decoy by forcing him to tape a video claiming responsibility for the murder weeks before it took place.
There was probable cause to believe the decision to kill Mr Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official(s) and could not have been further organised without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services," the report said.
The report was handed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday morning, and transmitted by Mr Annan to the council and the Lebanese government on Thursday evening.
Mr Hariri was a strong critic of Syria's decades-long domination of Lebanon, and many Lebanese have long suspected a link between his killing and the Syrian authorities.
His murder along with those of 20 other people in a suicide truck bombing in the streets of Beirut sparked international outrage and Lebanese protests that ultimately led to Syria's withdrawal from the country.
There was no immediate reaction to the findings from either Syria or Lebanon.
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