DAMASCUS, Oct 13: A Syrian police investigation has confirmed that Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with his favourite US-made revolver, the attorney-general said on Thursday.
Mohammed al Loji said he found Mr Kanaan’s blood-soaked body minutes after the minister, who had been questioned as part of a UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, shot himself in his office on Wednesday.
“The general was lying on the floor with his revolver still in his right hand and his hand on his chest...,” Mr Loji told a news conference. “The Smith and Wesson revolver was his own private gun that he had for years.”
Recalling his final moments, an aide said a calm Kanaan completed paperwork on his desk, drove home to get his revolver, then returned to the office. Moments later, a shot rang out.
Somewhere in between, Mr Kanaan called a Lebanese radio station and denied claims he had admitted to corruption to the UN team probing the February killing of Mr Hariri.
Officials had said on Wednesday that Mr Kanaan, Syria’s top official in Lebanon for two decades until 2002, had committed suicide and that an investigation was under way.
Mr Loji, who rushed to Mr Kanaan’s office after the incident, said a day of exhaustive work proved beyond doubt the minister had killed himself.
“Our investigation was to find if the crime is self inflicted, meaning suicide, or the action of others and our examination proves the death was by placing the pistol’s head in the mouth and shooting himself... Suicide 100 percent,” he said.
“As a criminal matter the case is now closed but as for other matters maybe not,” Loji told Reuters later, adding that no personal papers were found on Kanaan’s desk that could shed light on why he took his life.
Mr Kanaan’s personal mobile phone that was found near his body had neither dialled nor received calls.
Chief forensic doctor Issam Khouri, who led a team of experts, told reporters an examination of Kanaan’s body showed no signs of injuries beyond the bullet wound in the mouth.
“The only fired bullet was the one in the mouth in the upper jaw and shot from the mouth and penetrated the back of the head,” said Khouri, adding that Kanaan was pronounced dead in hospital almost 30 minutes after the bullet shot.
BEHAVIOUR NORMAL: His private secretary, Brigadier General Abdul Fatah al-Sabbagh, recalled Mr Kanaan’s last moments before his death, saying Kanaan exhibited no signs of anxiety and was normal.
“He was normal with no signs of irritability and even signed a load of paperwork on his desk,” said Sabbagh, who daily delivered Kanaan’s mail on his desk.
But after less than an hour in his office on that fateful morning, Kanaan abruptly drove his car unaccompanied by his guards to his home in the nearby affluent Malki neighbourhood.
Investigators say Kanaan spent five minutes at home to get his favourite high velocity revolver and headed back to his office where he shot himself within minutes.
“His walk was a bit faster when he came back from home. I buzzed him four times to pick up a phone he received and he did not answer and then shortly after I heard a gunshot. I then rushed to his office,” a visibly shaken Sabbagh said.
On the morning he died, Kanaan called Voice of Lebanon radio apparently to give his last testimony, denying a news report that he had shown U.N. investigators photocopies of cheques signed to him by Hariri and defending Syria’s role in Lebanon, where it kept troops for 29 years until April. —Reuters
