Kanaan's statements before death to Lebanese radio

The announcement of the suicide of Ghazi Kanaan, the minister of interior in Syria, came only hours after he had made a statement to the Voice Of Lebanon radio in which he commented on a news broadcast by the Lebanese "New TV" on a testimony he made before the international investigation committee regarding the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.

The Syrian minister of interior who dies at 63 year old told the radio station "this is the last statement I might give, asking the anchor of the program to give the statement to other TV stations."

As he was giving the statement, Kanaan seemed to be strong. He talked about the positive relation between Syria and Lebanon and the role he had played in that.

"New TV" reported on Tuesday evening that Kanaan said before the UN investigators into the assassination of al-Hariri that he used to get "Checks" from al-Hariri and distributed the money on Lebanese and Syrians, and that he keept copies of them.

The New TV station explained that Kanaan said in particular he received from al-Hariri 10 million dollars in order for Kanaan to impose on the Lebanese parliament the electoral law of year 2000 according to which al-Hariri achieved a great victory in the legislative elections, at a time al-Hariri was in the opposition.

However, officers in the UN committee made investigations with Kanaan and other Syrian officers over the assassination of Hariri. But the committee did not address to Kanaan any accusation of involvement in the assassination, though it referred to the responsibility of four heads of Lebanese security departments who had close relations with Kanaan.

It is presumed that Detlev Mehlis, the chairman of the UN investigation committee, will submit his report on the assassination of Hariri to the UN Security Council amid expectations of extending the work of the committee for additional three months.