UN report slams Syrian officers

A UN report on Monday pointed to fresh evidence further implicating senior Syrian officers in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri and raised doubts about Damascus' cooperation in the probe.

The 25-page report by chief investigator Delev Mehlis was delivered to the UN Security Council and made public only hours after a car bomb killed prominent anti-Syrian lawmaker and journalist Gibran Tueni in suburban Beirut.

Tueni, 48, was killed along with three other people hours after the Christian member of parliament returned to Lebanon from France, where he had taken refuge fearing his life was in danger.

"In late October 2005, the commission was approached by another new witness, who has submitted a comprehensive and coherent statement regarding plans to assassinate Mr. Hariri," the Mehlis report said.

"The witness has been assessed to be credible and the information he has submitted to be reliable. The statement from the witness streng-thens the evidence confirmed to date against the Lebanese officers in custody, as well as high-ranked Syrian officers," it said.

In a previous interim report released in October, the Mehlis panel had already found evidence that senior Syrian and Lebanese security officials were implicated in the murder of Hariri in Beirut last February.

Its report also raised questions about Syria's commitment to get to the bottom of Hariri's slaying through its own judicial investigation.

"The commission relies on the full and unconditional cooperation of the Syrian authorities in the next period of its enquiries, so that all aspects of the case under investigation may be ascertained," the report said.

The US envoy to the UN John Bolton called the report "very disturbing."

"Even though some Syrian cooperation has been forthcoming, the substance of the Mehlis report shows a failure by the government of Syria to abide by (UN Security Council) resolution 1636 (which demanded full Syrian cooperation with the UN probe)," he said.

Bolton two examples in the report which he said illustrated Syrian "obstruction of justice."

One in the report said that statements made by two Syrian suspects indicated that "all Syrian intelligence documents concerning Lebanon had been burned" and it also noted "that no material regarding the assassinaton of Mr. Hariri had been found in Syrian intelligence archives."

Bolton pointed to remarks in the report on the case of Syrian former intelligence agent Hassam Taher Hassam, who last month recanted his statement implicating the brother and brother-in-law of President Bashar al-Assad in Hariri's slaying.

The report said that the panel had received "credible information" that prior to his public statement on Syrian state television recanting his testimony, "Syrian officials had arrested and threatened some of Mr Hassam's close relatives in Syria."

"Preliminary investigation leads to a conclusion that Mr Hassam is being manipulated by the Syrian authorities," the report said.

"This is not cooperation. This is obstruction of justice," Bolton said.

Bolton to reporters shortly before the Security Council adopted a French-drafted statement condemning "in the strongest terms" the Tueni slaying.