Mehlis report next month, news of interrogating Mu'allim
A Lebanese official expected that, on the conclusion of the international investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri of its mission in Damascus, the committee will submit its report to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan in October.
In a statement, the Lebanese minister of justice Charles Rizk said on Saturday that the committee will hand over each of the ministry of justice in Beirut and the UN a copy of its report on October 21st, three days before the end of its mission.
The spokesman for the UN regional office in Beirut, Najib Freiji, said that the investigation team, which is chaired by the German Detlev Mehlis, met on Saturday following his return back to Beirut to assess his work after four days of investigations in Damascus.
News reports quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that the Mehlis committee listened to interrogations in Damascus of seven witnesses including the current minister of interior and former chief of the Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon Ghazi Kanaan between 1984- 1002, his successor Rostom Ghazaleh, April 2002 until 2005 and two of his main assistants Muhammad Khallouf and Jame Jame.
The sources added that the committee listened also to the Syrian deputy foreign minister Walid al-Mu'allim who telephoned al-Hariri hours before his assassination.
The conclusion of the investigations in Damascus came one day after the UN secretary general denied information by the Washington Post stating that Damascus is seeking to arrange a deal with Mehlis. Annan added that so far there are no accused Syrians in this case.
In Beirut, the minister of justice ruled out that the Mehlis report will include all facts on the assassination operation. He said "there are people talking about the Mehlis report which he will submit on October 21 as if it will be able to expose the whole reality in being a definite sentence that will name the killers."
He added that the report will be the culmination of the investigations carried out by Mehlis since he came to Lebanon on top of the UN investigation committee, in the mid of June. It is one element of the investigations he ( Mehlis gives) that will help the Lebanese investigators find the facts.
So far, the Mehlis investigation led to the arrest of four senior Lebanese security officers suspected of being involved in the assassination attempt which led to the killing of al-Hariri, parliamentarian Basel Fleihan, and other 19 persons.