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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria probe backs suicide theory
2005-10-13
Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide on Wednesday with his own gun shortly after a brief visit home, an official inquiry has found. After examination of the body and questioning witnesses the case has now been closed, the chief prosecutor said.
"Nothing to see here. Move along"
Kanaan's body has now been taken from Damascus to his home town for burial. A low-key funeral is planned for the former intelligence chief who for years was the most powerful figure in Lebanon after it fell under Syrian domination. An ambulance decked with flowers and followed by a dozens of official cars carried the coffin to the western village of Bhamra. There was a wreath from President Bashar al-Assad's office, but no Syrian flag draped over the coffin.
Sounds like they are all ready to lay the blame on him for the assassination of Hariri
"Examination of the body and fingerprints as well as testimony from employees, including senior aide General Walid Abaza, indicated that it was a suicide by gunshot," Prosecutor Muhammad al-Luaji said quoted by the official news agency. "It was established that the cause of death was suicide using General Kanaan's personal revolver, a .38 calibre Smith and Wesson. [He] put the barrel of his gun in his mouth and fired a bullet," he said.

Shortly before, the minister had spent 45 minutes at his home, although it has not been reported what he did there. Correspondents say the investigation by Syria's notoriously opaque regime will do little to dampen speculation about the circumstances of Kanaan's death.

One of the leaders in Lebanon of the anti-Syrian opposition, Walid Jumblatt, said on Thursday that if Kanaan had been involved in the assassination of Hariri, he had been a "brave man" to kill himself.
"If Gen Ghazi Kanaan is responsible somehow or somewhere for the assassination... then he did well, if I may say, by committing suicide," Mr Jumblatt said.
Took one for the team, so to speak
The death came a week before the UN is to publish a report into the killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, which many Lebanese blamed on Syria although Damascus denies it.

Washington described Kanaan as a "central figure in Syria's occupation of Lebanon for many years" but has declined to comment on the circumstances of his death. "I don't believe it was a suicide," said former US Mid-East mediator Dennis Ross, in remarks quoted by Associated Press. If the UN report pointed to Syrian involvement in Hariri's death, Mr Ross said, Kanaan was likely to be implicated because of his seniority and prominence.

Kanaan, 63, was Syria's top security official in Beirut from 1982. He returned to Damascus in 2002 as political intelligence chief and went on to join the cabinet in 2004.
Posted by:Steve

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