April 13, 2010 - Daily Star - STL registrar makes first visit to Lebanon

By Patrick Galey

BEIRUT: The acting registrar of the UN probe into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri kicked off a week of deliberations with top Lebanese officials Monday in a trip aimed at building ties between Beirut and The Hague.
“We are looking to enhance our cooperation with Lebanon and our communication with the Lebanese community, not just officials but also lawyers and civil society [members],” UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) spokesperson Fatima al-Issawi told The Daily Star.
Acting Registrar Herman von Hebel, during his first visit to Lebanon, met Speaker Nabhi Berri on Monday, but made no statement after the meeting.
As von Hebel began his first round of meetings, it emerged that a former Syrian intelligence chief, who was accused of falsifying evidence for the tribunal, is currently in Europe.
Mohammad Zuhair al-Siddiq was imprisoned in the Gulf and due to return to his native Syria upon completing his sentence for entering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a forged Czech passport.
The Kuwaiti daily As-Siyassah printed on Monday a statement allegedly sent from Siddiq which failed to specify exactly what country the discredited witness was in.
In an interview with the paper, Siddiq claimed he was given the falsified documentation to enter the UAE by France’s Interior Ministry, headed at the time by President Nicholas Sarkozy.
“I didn’t know [the passport] was forged. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office when he was interior minister gave me this passport,” Siddiq was quoted as saying. “I was told that [the passport] was earmarked for the protection of witnesses in Hariri’s case,” he added.
Siddiq was last heard from in October last year, when he received his sentence from an Abu Dhabi court. He was supposed to be returned to Syria following the completion of his jail term.
In Monday’s interview, Siddiq also claimed that Hizbullah had some involvement in Hariri’s murder.
German magazine Der Speigel has accused Hizbullah of involvement in the case and STL investigators have recently contacted party cadres for information as witnesses, as the group’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah confirmed in a televised address last week.
Shortly after the STL began in March 2009, Siddiq was declared as no longer of interest to investigators.