April 12, 2010 - Naharnet - Siddiq: Forged Passport Given to Me by Sarkozy's Office

A former Syrian spy accused of misleading the U.N. probe into the murder of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri said he had entered the United Arab Emirates with a forged Czech passport that he had received from then French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
"I didn't know it (the passport) was forged. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office when he was interior minister gave me this passport," Zuhair Siddiq told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper at a European country where he is now residing after leaving the UAE.

"I was told that it (the passport) was earmarked for the protection of witnesses in Hariri's case," the one-time member of Syria's intelligence services said.

Siddiq was initially seen as a leading witness in the U.N. probe but was discredited later for giving false testimony.

In October 2009, a state security court in Abu Dhabi sentenced him to six months in jail and deportation for entering the UAE on the forged passport.

In his interview with al-Seyassah, Siddiq also accused Hizbullah cadres of involvement in Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination, saying some of the party's officials were similar to "Chicago gangs."

During the Damascus hegemony on Lebanon, "any small or big security operation was carried out in coordination between Hizbullah and the Syrian leadership through the Syrian military intelligence," he said.

He stressed on his previous accusations against the Syrian-Lebanese security regime, reiterating that "the Syrian regime and former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud gave orders" to kill Hariri.