April 23, 2009 - Naharnet - Siddiq: From Sharjah to Abu Dhabi

Sharjah police handed over "King Witness" Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq to security authorities in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, As Safir newspaper reported Thursday.
The daily said the move was made on the basis that he posed a threat to the national security of the United Arab Emirates and had a fake passport.Abu Dhabi authorities will next decide what step to take by either imprisoning him or handing him over to Syria if Damascus makes an official request for his extradition. U.N. Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokeswoman Suzanne Khan refused to comment on the report. "The tribunal has nothing to do with Siddiq's handing over and Belgian pre-trial magistrate Daniel Fransen did not order the arrest of anyone," she told As Safir.Newspaper reports in 2006 quoted Siddiq as saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad and his then Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud ordered ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's killing in a massive Beirut car bombing.Siddiq, who was under an international arrest warrant requested by a Lebanese prosecutor, was detained in October 2005 in a Paris suburb on grounds he gave false evidence to U.N. investigators.He had been living in France under house arrest until he disappeared a year ago.