BEIRUT - Detlev Mehlis, the head of the United Nations team probing the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, will meet a senior Syrian official in Spain to agree on a venue for questioning six Syrian suspects, a Syrian source confirmed Friday. Mehlis will meet Raid Daudi, legal counsellor at a branch of the Syrian Foreign Ministry in Barcelona, Spain, later Friday.
According to the Syrian source contacted from Beirut, the two men are scheduled to examine a Syrian proposal to conduct an interrogation at the headquarters of a U.N. observer force in the Golan Heights. "Besides the U.N. headquarters, Syria is for holding the questioning in the German city of Cologne or in Turkey," the source said. | I'm surprised they'd let the "suspects" get that far away from Syrian control. |
Mehlis reportedly wants to interview Syrian officials in the U.N. offices in Monteverde, east of Beirut, over Hariri's killing in a February 14 bomb blast. "The Syrian authorities are refusing Lebanon for certain security reasons," the source said. | Like they might get strung up |
The six officers include the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Assef Shawkat, who is head of Syria's military intelligence. Apart from Shawkat, Mehlis also wants to question Bahjat Suleiman, former domestic intelligence chief, the former head of military intelligence in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazaleh, and his deputy Jamaa Jamaa. |