BEIRUT, Nov 12: United Nations investigators probing the murder of Lebanon’s former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri have interrogated pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, heightening pressure on the embattled regime in Damascus.
“President Emile Lahoud met with two members of the international fact-finding panel at 5:00 pm (Friday) ... and gave them true and precise information concerning telephone calls received by the president’s office before the hideous crime,” a statement from Mr Lahoud’s office said.
The six-hour meeting, Mr Lahoud’s first with the team of UN investigators led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, underscores the president’s increasingly precarious position in the face of mounting calls to stand down.
Mr Hariri’s killing in a Beirut bomb blast on February 14 sparked an international outcry and eventually led Syria to withdraw its troops from neighbouring Lebanon after a 29-year military presence.
Several close Mr Lahoud aides have been arrested on charges including pre-meditated murder, and were named in a report issued by the UN team in October that implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese officials.
Mr Lahoud’s interrogation came as US President George W. Bush called on Syria to stop trying to “intimidate and destabilize” the Lebanese government and to cooperate fully with the UN probe.
Mr Lahoud’s spokesman Rafic Shalala told AFP the “meeting between Mr Lahoud and the committee was held at the request of the president who wants to clarify the telephone calls”.
Mehlis has previously said that Mr Lahoud was not considered a “suspect”.
“Mr Lahoud appeared as a witness only,” Shalala said. “He wants to speed up the judicial process because the case is starting to have a negative impact on the nation.”
The UN team has established that the brother of a key suspect called Mr Lahoud’s telephone number minutes before the explosion that killed Mr Hariri.
The suspect has been identified as Ahmad Abdel-Al, a prominent member of Al-Ahbash, a Lebanese charity with strong ties with Syria and the Lebanese presidency.
Mr Lahoud’s office said a call was registered on one of the presidency telephones but that it was not Mr Lahoud himself who took the call.—–AFP