Masked witness harms credibility of UN Hariri assassination report, Syrian official

Former Lebanese Minister Weiam Wahab called on Monday for the resignation the Lebanese Minister of Interior Hasan Saba and to the arrest of the Lebanese journalist Fares Khashan in light of the masked witness Husam Taher Husam declarations over bids to mislead the UN investigating committee into the killing of former Lebanese Premier Rafiq al-Hariri.

In a press conference, Wahab said the press conference of the main witness into the killing of Hariri might not simply pass particularly in light of events mentioned by the witness pointing out that there were a gang trying to manipulate everything for its interest at certain institutions and apparatuses.

"The most important thing is to salvage Lebanon and the most important thing is to salvage the UN creditability as well the international investigating committee," Wahab said wondering whether things might be so trivial when some malicious persons do involve the international investigating committee and the UN in a delusion of this kind."

Wahab underlined that the Israeli intelligence agencies, the Mossad, has a big role in fabricating accusations against Syria and some Lebanese officials.

Husam Taher Husam, known as the "masked witness" held a press conference today in Damascus in which he identified that he was the masked witness who faced Lieutenant General Jamil al-Sayyed in Lebanon and addressed lies that some Lebanese personalities asked him to direct to Sayyed, saying they were just lies of no base and noted that he was asked to direct lies against brigadier General Rustom Ghazala and another Syria officer when he meet them at the UN Headquarters in Vienna.

Husam depicted these questions as "a bulk of lies that have no relation to truth and that they are aimed at inserting conviction of committing the crime." For his part, Spokesman of the Syrian investigating committee into the killing of former Lebanese premier Ibrahim Daraji said the committee is now fully hearing testimonies of Husam to put them in their safe legal framework.

He noted that the committee will send the results to the UN investigating committee as it had done to investigation with Syrians.

Darraji said the report of the UN investigating committee depended on the two main witnesses and found out that they were perjury witnesses, a matter that makes the report loose its credibility regarding these two testimonies from the legal point of view.