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Kanaan was prime suspect Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aE8nWOUZduPs&refer=top_world_newshttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aE8nWOUZduPs&refer=top_world_news
Syria Minister, Ex-Lebanon Spy Chief, Commits Suicide (Update2)
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, a former military intelligence chief in Lebanon, committed suicide in his office in Damascus today, Syria's official SANA news service said.
Kanaan telephoned a Lebanese radio station earlier today and defended Syria's 29-year presence in Lebanon, finishing with the words: ``I believe this is the last declaration that I may make,'' according to a recording of the broadcast carried by al- Jazeera television. The last Syrian military contingent in Lebanon left in April.
``General Kanaan left his office to go home, then he came back after three-quarters of an hour, took a gun from the drawer and fired a bullet into his mouth,'' General Walid Abaza, the minister's chief aide, was cited by Agence France-Presse as saying. Kanaan was 63.
A United Nations team investigating the February assassination in Beirut of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed by a bomb, interviewed Kanaan and other Syrian officials last month, AFP reported. Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor heading the investigation, is scheduled to report his findings to the UN Security Council on Oct. 25.
Kanaan was a ``prime suspect'' in Hariri's assassination, and his death is likely to limit what the UN report will say about Syrian involvement, according to Geoff Porter, Middle East analyst for the Eurasia Group, a New York-based research and consulting firm that does political risk-analysis for businesses.
Assad's Threat
``It seemed increasingly likely that President Bashar al- Assad would hand Kanaan over in order to mitigate the investigation's impact on the Syrian administration and prevent it from moving any higher up the Syrian chain of command,'' Porter said in an e-mailed statement. ``If the Mehlis report indicates that Kanaan was directly involved in Hariri's death, Assad will now claim that the interior minister had acted on his own and without the administration's approval.''
Assad told CNN in an interview today in Damascus that any Syrians implicated by the UN probe into Hariri's death would be regarded as traitors and either handed over to an international tribunal or be prosecuted in Syria. The Syrian government was not involved in the murder of Hariri, Assad said.
In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush told reporters he doesn't want to ``prejudge'' the Mehlis findings.
``We have a lot of expectations for Syria beyond just the Mehlis report,'' Bush said. ``I think it's very important for Syria to understand that the free world respects Lebanese democracy and expects Syria to honor that democracy.''
Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon after the international outcry over Hariri's death.
Intelligence Chief
Kanaan, appointed interior minister in October 2004, served from 1982 to 2003 as Syrian military intelligence chief for Lebanon.
In June, Treasury Secretary John Snow froze Kanaan's assets in the U.S., citing corruption and support for terrorism. The action was intended to ``financially insolate bad actors supporting Syria's efforts to destabilize its neighbors,'' Snow said in a report posted on Treasury's Web site.
Last Updated: October 12, 2005 15:13 EDT
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