Damascus eulogizes Kanaan, holds media responsible for his death
Syria-Lebanon, Politics, 10/14/2005

The Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara held the Lebanese mass media, without naming them, responsible for the death of the Syrian minister of interior Ghazi Kanaan whose suicide was declared on Wednesday and was buried on Thursday in his birthplace.

Al-Shara said during his participation with other many Syrian officials in Kanaan funeral in Damascus that Kanaan had complained of a defamation campaign launched by the mass media before his suicide, adding that the media when using the words "they use it like bullets."

Worthy mentioning that Kanaan talked to the Sawt Lubnan (Voice Of Lebanon) radio hours before his suicide to deny news stated in a report broadcast by the Lebanese New TV in which it accused him of giving information to the investigator in the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, Detlev Mehlis, on bribes Kanaan had received from Hariri that Kanaan distributed on Syrian and Lebanese officials.

For his part, the Syrian deputy prime minister Abdullah al-Dardari described Kanaan after his burial as a hero who served Lebanon honestly. He added "the elements of national unity you see today are but an evidence that this man in his life and death is but a national patriotic hero."

Kanaan's funeral was eulogized in two phases. The first was in the presence of the prime minister Naji Otari and political and military officials, and the second was in Bahmra town, Lattakia governorate ( 350 km west of Damascus.)

The funeral ceremony was also attended at his birthplace by 3,000 persons most of them from Bahmra town, and were led by the deputy premier Dardari and other six ministers including the minister of al-Awqaf, Muhammad Ziad al-Ayoubi, and the minister of expatriates Butheina Shaaban.

In Bajmra, the funeral ceremony was attended by the delegation of the social nationalist party in Lebanon chaired by the chairman of the party Ali Qansouh and included parliamentarian Asaad Hardan.

The first attorney general in Damascus, Muhammad Marwan al-Louji, on Thursday announced officially the closure of the file of investigation in the incident and considered it as a suicide.

Previous Stories:
  US sources stresses Syria has no relation to assassination of Hariri   (10/13/2005)
  Lebanese deputy speaker: Kanaan suicide due to pain from Syrian-Lebanese development   (10/13/2005)
  Lebanon underlines solidarity with Syria   (10/13/2005)
  Late Syrian interior minister refuted Lebanese accusations against him   (10/13/2005)
  Kanaan's statements before death to Lebanese radio   (10/13/2005)
  Al-Assad: any Syrian involved in Hariri assassination is traitor   (10/13/2005)

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