UN: Syrian and Lebanese link to Hariri killing

New evidence has only reinforced investigators’ belief that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were likely involved in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister, a UN probe said in a new report today.

The 25-page report from German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis’ team again accused Syria of trying to obstruct his probe when it demanded that he revise his findings after a crucial witness recanted his testimony.

“This was, at the least, an attempt to hinder the investigation internally and procedurally,” the report said.

The report was delivered on the same day that a car bomb killed a prominent Lebanese journalist and MP, Gibran Tueni. It was the latest in a string of assassinations of anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon, and many quickly accused Damascus in the slaying.

Syria denied being behind the blast. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said he will ask the United Nations to set up a new inquiry into Tueni’s killing and previous bombings and to create an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination.

Mehlis’ team delivered a report in October that implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in Rafik Hariri’s February 14 assassination, a car bombing that also killed 20 other people. Mehlis said greater Syrian co-operation was needed.

Syria denies involvement and has claim. It has also waged a campaign to discredit the commission, citing a Syrian witness, Husam Taher Husam, who recanted his testimony to the commission and said he had been bribed to frame Syria.

Mehlis said that recantation hadn’t affected his findings. In fact, he said, “the investigation has continued to develop multiple lines of enquiry which, if anything, reinforce those conclusions.”

The latest claim of obstruction would be important because after Mehlis delivered his earlier report, the council had warned Syria that it would face further action – possibly including sanctions – if it didn’t co-operate fully.

Last week, members of the Mehlis commission questioned several senior Syrian officials at the UN headquarters in Vienna. UN diplomats there said Rustum Ghazale, the last Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon who was in charge when Hariri was assassinated, was among them.

Mehlis will brief the council tomorrow. He has said he then wants to step down and return to his job as a leading prosecutor in Berlin.

Lebanon has asked the Security Council to extend Mehlis’ commission for six months after its mandate expires on Thursday.

The Security Council, whose approval would be required, is likely to agree to extend it until June 15.