Mehlis: 'Mustafa Hamdan is Suspect in Hariri's Murder, Rustom to be Questioned Soon'

Mehlis: 'Mustafa Hamdan is Suspect in Hariri's Murder, Rustom to be Questioned Soon'
Lebanon's Presidential Brigade commander Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, President Lahoud's inseparable military shadow, has been publicly named by U.N. chief investigator Detlev Mehlis as a prime suspect in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination. Mehlis, a Berlin prosecutor, made the bombshell accusation from his summer headquarters in Lebanon's central mountain district of Monteverde in an interview published by France's Parisian daily LeFigaro on Wednesday, The Agence France Presse reported. Mehlis said he also plans to interrogate soon Syria's former military intelligence chief in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Rustom Ghazaleh, who was the real ruler of Lebanon when the anti-Syria Hariri was assassinated by a one-ton bomb in downtown Beirut Feb. 14.Mehlis did not say where he would interrogate Ghazaleh, who has left his Anjar headquarters in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley when Syria completed its military evacuation of Lebanon on April 26. "As I have said from the start, any person concerned with security in Lebanon at the time must be questioned." The Mehlis revelations were made public, possibly on purpose, just hours after the announcement of Lebanon's new government under Fouad Seniora's premiership to try to free Lebanon from the chains left by Syria's 29-year ruthless reign. The timing raised question marks whether it could have been possible to decree the new government had the Mehlis charge been announced beforehand.On Hamdan, Mehlis said: "On the basis of evidence gathered, we have a suspect, Mustafa Hamdan. He was one of the first persons questioned because we had information that he is the one of those who gave orders to change the scene of the crime, just after the attack."Mehlis went on to say "Why was this cleaned up? Deliberately? Through negligence? Both? I have quite a clear idea. But we are still in an investigation stage. I can't tell you any more."There was no immediate comment from Hamdan or President Lahoud on the Mehlis charge.U.N. investigators on June 21 searched Hamdan's office in the Baabda president palace and his Beirut house and then took him for prolonged interrogation."We have searched his home and his office. We have questioned him for more than nine hours. He has cooperated," said Mehlis. The former chief of Lebanon's General Security Department, Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, also was questioned by the U.N. investigators on July 6, But Mehlis did not classify him as a suspect in the LeFigaro interview.Mehlis said his team had also received "good information" on the case from Israeli authorities. He did not elaborate.(AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, Updated 20 Jul 05