February 10, 2009 - Naharnet - Bellemare: We Would Transfer Apprehended Suspects to the Hague

Chief U.N. investigator Daniel Bellemare said the commission investigating former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination has not met the key witness in the murder trial recently, but added that "we have something to say about him later."
In an interview with the daily Al Akhbar, excerpts of which were published on Tuesday, Bellemare said the commission has not met Mohammed Zuheir Siddiq "for a while." He said the commission, however, has "something to say concerning him (Siddiq) later."Al Akhbar said the interview will be published in full on Wednesday.
Siddiq, who was under an international arrest warrant requested by a Lebanese prosecutor, was detained in October 2005 in a Paris suburb in connection with the assassination.But France refused to extradite him to Lebanon because it had not been given guarantees that he would not face the death penalty if convicted, and the former intelligence agent had since been living in the Paris suburb of Chatou.
Siddiq was quoted in newspaper reports in 2006 as saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his then Lebanese counterpart, Emile Lahoud, ordered Hariri's 2005 assassination in a massive Beirut car bombing.There have been conflicting reports about Siddiq with some saying he disappeared, while his brother claiming that France had "liquidated" him. France denied the charge. On the issue of the four former Lebanese officers detained in connection with Hariri's assassination, Bellemare said he will ask the Lebanese judiciary "as soon as possible after March 1" to give up its right to handling the case", in an apparent effort to avoid collision of power."All files, evidence, and apprehended suspects would be moved to the Hague. That is if if there are people still in custody," he was quoted as saying.
Bellamare reaffirmed commitment to the judicial rule that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.He said the commission was "satisfied" with the cooperation of the Lebanese government in the investigation of Hariri's murder.