| Author | Message | | Alpha | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 4:18 am Post subject: 'Long planned' Hariri killing linked to Syria, says UN |
| 'Long planned' Hariri killing linked to Syria, says UN
Jamie Wilson in Washington
Friday October 21, 2005
Guardian
A UN report into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has found high-ranking Syrian intelligence officials were almost certainly involved in the attack that was months in the planning.
The long awaited investigation into the February 14 killing established "that many leads point directly towards Syrian security officials as being involved with the assassination".
US officials and diplomats warned earlier yesterday that if Syria were implicated it might face a call for sanctions, but it was not clear last night whether the evidence in the report was strong enough.
The 53-page report, by the German chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said Mr Hariri's assassination was so complex that it would be difficult to imagine that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services did not know about it. The assassination decision "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official and could not have been further organised without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security services", said the report, which was handed over to UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and the security council.
Now, Mr Mehlis said, the investigation must be continued with Lebanese judicial and security authorities in the lead.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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