A man claiming to be a former Syrian intelligence agent in Lebanon has said on Syrian state television that Lebanese officials tortured him and offered bribes to persuade him to present false testimony against Syria to a UN commission investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.
The man, Hussam Taher Hussam, said he had been held in Lebanon by supporters of Saad Hariri, the son of the former prime minister, and subjected to torture and drug injections to force him to testify.
Saad Hariri, he said, offered him US$1.3 million if he would lie about senior Syrian officials. Hussam did not say whether he had accepted any money.
Hussam, a slim, bespectacled Syrian Kurd, looked composed and unemotional as he spoke on a program originally broadcast on Sunday.
False evidence
He said that Hariri and his associates had asked him to tell investigators that he had seen a truck used in the assassination at a Syrian military camp, and to present false evidence implicating Maher Assad, the younger brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Asef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law, in the killing in February.
"It was a ploy," Hussam said, adding that Hariri and his associates were desperate to accuse Syria. Syria agreed last week to allow five of its intelligence officials to travel to Vienna to be interviewed by Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor leading the inquiry. His findings are to be presented to the Security Council in mid-December.
In an interim version of the report, released last month, he presented evidence that strongly suggested that high-level Syrian officials were involved in planning the assassination.
Hussam was not identified as a witness in the interim report. However, the commission issued a statement confirming that he was a witness, saying he had come forward voluntarily.
Revenge
He told investigators several times that he feared that Syrian authorities would take revenge on him or his family, the statement said.
Saad Hariri's office issued a statement denying that there had ever been any contact between Hussam and Hariri or any of his associates.
Elie Fawaz, a Lebanese political analyst, said that Hussam's TV appearance was widely mocked in Lebanon as a clumsy attempt by President Assad and his allies to discredit the investigation.
"The image that pops up in my mind is from Maoist China," Fawaz said. "Mao used to bring people forward and force them to publicly denounce themselves, and that's exactly what's happening now in Syria."
But Joshua Landis, a University of Oklahoma historian who is in Syria on a Fulbright research fellowship, said that Hussam's story was playing well.
"Everyone in Syria is watching it, and they're very excited," he said. "They love this stuff. They want to believe it."
Arsenio Butil Jr fell to his knees and began to pray when last week’s deadly magnitude 7.8 earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines. When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swathes of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline. The June 8 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and killed at least 76 people on the southern island of Mindanao. The tectonic forces at work also thrust chunks of the island’s coastline upward in a phenomenon known as “coastal uplift,”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian forces were preparing an impending massive attack on Ukraine and warned residents to take special care as Russian strikes in different regions killed at least six people. “Tonight and in the coming hours, it is especially important to pay close attention to air raid warnings,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “The Russians have prepared for a massive attack. Please take care of yourselves.” Russian forces have staged a series of heavy attacks on Kyiv in the past few weeks and in other major cities. Strikes on Monday last week killed
YUCK OR YUM? While it is difficult to sell second-hand goods that are more than seven years old in Japan, they are still popular in foreign markets, an executive said Under a scorching sun in a Bangkok suburb, a whistle blew, and shouts filled the air as dozens of shoppers rushed into a warehouse bearing the sign “Japanese Second-Hand Store.” From bags and bicycles to surfboards and suitcases, the Japanese second-hand market is booming, with quality-conscious buyers in other Asian countries increasingly tapping into the circular economy trend. “What is considered garbage for them can still be useful in Thailand,” said 36-year-old Lookpoo Sathitpanyapon, who runs an online store selling toy keychains. “That bag, that bag,” one shopper shouted while racing through the warehouse, filled with everything from colorful toys
NATO ALLIES: The Italian PM accused Trump of ‘constant, unprovoked ... senseless’ attacks and said ‘my popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours’ Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday fired back at US President Donald Trump, saying his “constant, unprovoked attacks are senseless” after he escalated a diplomatic row by accusing her of repeatedly seeking a photograph with him. The clash has opened an unusually personal rift between Trump and one of Europe’s most prominent right-wing leaders, who had sought to cast herself as a bridge between Washington and the continent during Trump’s return to power. Trump had initially told Italian broadcaster La7 that Meloni “begged” him for a picture at last week’s G7 summit in France, saying he agreed only because
RSS