Witness claims recordings implicate Syrians in Hariri killing

BEIRUT - Mohammed Zuheir al-Siddiq, a Syrian who used to work for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, said Sunday that he has recordings that implicate some Syrian officers in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

In a telephone call from an unknown location, Siddiq called Lebanese television New TV, which has close links with Hezbollah, and said: “I have seven recorded phone conversations of people who were involved in the Hariri murder, and (the recordings) will soon be in the possession of the UN tribunal.”

Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly demanded that the UN-backed tribunal investigate the backgrounds of discredited witnesses such as Siddiq.

Siddiq said that he would “soon go on foot to the court in The Hague” to deliver all the recordings, which he did not give to the investigators before.

Siddiq aired a voice recording, and said many Lebanese “will recognize his voice, but I will not name him now”.

Observers believed the voice recording was Brigadier Rustom Ghazali, the former head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon at the time of Syria’s military presence in its smaller neighbour.

The Hariri assassination in 2005 caused an international and local outcry, during which Syria was pushed to end its 30-year military presence in Lebanon.

Hariri’s followers allege that Syria was behind the murder of Hariri, a charge Damascus has always denied.

The tribunal was established in 2007 to probe and try people involved in the Hariri case.