High ranking Lebanese with ties to Syria held in Hariri murder

NY Times:

A United Nations team investigating the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister ordered the detention on Tuesday of five high-ranking current or former Lebanese officials with close ties to Syria, citing them as suspects in the February killing and sending a message to Damascus and its allies that no one will be spared scrutiny in the inquiry.

Mustafa Hamdan, the commander of the Lebanese Presidential Guard, who investigators have suggested played a major role in covering up the killing, turned himself in to the authorities, while a former pro-Syrian member of Parliament named Nasser Qandil, who was in Syria on Tuesday morning, was reportedly apprehended by the police at a border crossing late Tuesday afternoon.

In separate raids on Tuesday morning, investigators working with the Lebanese police detained Jamil al-Sayyed, Lebanon's former head of general security; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, onetime chief of the Lebanese police; and Raymond Azar, former military intelligence chief. Armed with search warrants, the investigators went through the suspects' houses before bringing them in for questioning.

...

"There is a big threat in Lebanon now, and whoever killed Rafik Hariri will have no problem killing Saad Hariri and whoever else he needs to," Mr. Hariri said in a telephone interview from Paris.

United Nations officials emphasized that the men had not been arrested, but instead were being held for questioning until charges were brought against them. All but one had already been questioned by interrogators.


Syria has still not given up the truth abut the murder.

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