Syria tries to discredit death probe
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-29 09:08

Syria sought to discredit a U.N. probe into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Monday, after a man who purported to be a crucial witness claimed that he gave false testimony implicating Damascus.

The probe's finding that Syria must have known about — and may have been involved in — Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination has "completely collapsed" because of the revelation, said Ibrahim Daraji, spokesman for the Syrian inquiry into Hariri's murder.

"Politically and judicially ... I believe the report has been dealt a knockout blow," Daraji said of the probe's findings, delivered to the U.N. Security Council in October.

Daraji spoke at a news conference alongside Husam Taher Husam, the man who had claimed in an interview on Syrian state television late Sunday that Hariri's family had bribed him to accuse top Syrian officials of Hariri's murder.

He claimed that he was the witness indentified in the probe's report as a former employee of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, who had delivered crucial information about the purported involvement of the Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services in Hariri's slaying.

The U.N. investigation, led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, confirmed Husam was a witness who had voluntarily approached the commission. A U.N. statement released in Beirut Monday said the commission "does not offer, and has never offered or provided, any compensation in exchange for information."

Syrians in Damascus watch as Husam Taher Husam, a Syrian, who is better known as the 'hooded witness' in the U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, speaks during a press conference broadcast live on Syrian TV. [AP]

Husam alleged that Hariri's son Saad met him several months ago and then, through an aide, offered him $1.3 million to testify. An aide of Saad Hariri's also dismissed the claim.

"It is a desperate attempt by desperate people to mislead the investigation and public opinion," Hammoud said on Hariri's Future TV from Argentina, adding that Hariri has never met Husam.

Husam's allegations came days before five senior Syrian officials were due to appear before the U.N. commission in Vienna. The officials, who have not been named either by the commission or Syria, will be questioned in the U.N. headquarters in the Austrian capital as part of an agreement reached after more than two weeks of negotiations.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the U.N. Security Council did not want to see a repeat of previous interviews, when Syrian officials "came with talking points in effect for all their witnesses, they had minders there to make sure that they said the right thing."

He refused to comment on Husam's claims except that the council would wait to see what Mehlis had to say.

"The circumstances in which a witness can change his story happen all the time in investigations," he said.

In its interim report, the commission implicated the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in the bombing that killed Hariri and 20 others. Syrian officials have for weeks tried to discredit the U.N. investigation as biased against Syria.

Husam's name has previously appeared in Lebanese news reports that said he gave evidence to the commission while wearing a hood to conceal his identity. Husam claimed that Lebanese investigators had given him a text to deliver as his own statement, took his photograph and threatened to release them to divulge his identity.

Husam said he was told to prepare to travel to Vienna to testify against the Syrian officials. Instead, he said, traveled to the Syrian border and took a taxi to Damascus on Sunday.

Hariri's assassination, which many Lebanese blame on Syria, was the catalyst for mass anti-Syrian street protests and intensified international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon, ending nearly three decades of domination.