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Syrian witness says Hariri's son forced him to lie
By Reuters
11/28/05 -- -- DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A man has appeared on Syrian
state television saying Lebanese officials, including the son of Rafik al-Hariri, had forced him to testify falsely to a U.N. inquiry
into the former Lebanese prime minister's assassination.
Hosam Taher Hosam, a Syrian who said he had worked with Syrian and
Lebanese intelligence during Syria's military presence in Lebanon,
said in a programme aired on Sunday that an elaborate scheme of
torture, threats and bribery had forced him to testify to chief U.N.
investigator Detlev Mehlis.
His appearance came after Damascus agreed to allow five Syrian
officials to be questioned by Mehlis at U.N. offices in Vienna in
connection with Hariri's February 14 assassination.
Hariri and other officials accused by Hosam could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Hosam, who said he belonged to Syria's Kurdish minority, said
followers of Hariri and other anti-Syrian officials had detained him
for a while in Lebanon and had wanted him to go to Vienna to
confront the Syrians to be questioned by Mehlis.
"It is all a ploy," Hosam said. "They were after Syria."
He said Hariri had told him he was convinced Syria was behind the
truck bomb that killed his father, but needed Hosam's testimony to
prove it.
Syria kept a tight grip on its small neighbour Lebanon for nearly
three decades until a Lebanese and international outcry over
Hariri's death forced it to withdraw its troops in April.
Hosam also accused Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and
Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh of arranging for other
witnesses to testify falsely to Mehlis.
Hosam said his captors had wanted him to implicate Maher al-Assad, a
brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his brother-in-law,
Major General Asef Shawkat, the head of military intelligence.
Hosam said he had been tortured, injected with drugs and offered
$1.3 million by Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa to tell
the investigators he had seen the truck used in Hariri's killing in
a Syrian-controlled military facility.
Hosam said he believed Mehlis was unaware of the alleged scheme. "I
felt he had no relation to anything or knew anything," he said.
Mehlis has interviewed more than 500 people in connection with
Hariri's killing, diplomatic sources say. His interim report in
October did not name Hosam.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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