Report: Bellemare Finds New Leads of Syrian Involvement in Hariri Murder
Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has reached new leads in his investigation that accuses Syrian officials of involvement in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination, sources in The Hague told Naharnet.
They said Bellemare put his new information in the amended indictment that he filed to pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen last week.
Bellemare received the information from Syrian witnesses who defected to The Hague and are now under the witness protection program.
An informed French source told As Safir daily in remarks published Thursday that the STP prosecutor held talks with French officials in Paris several weeks ago asking for more cooperation by French security agencies.
He reportedly promised them to reach the “Syrian masterminds” of the Feb. 2005 killing of Hariri in return for more information by the agencies on the bombing attack on Beirut’s seafront.
It was not clear what type of information French authorities were holding back from Bellemare on the attack that was widely blamed on Syria immediately after the assassination. But Damascus has always denied the allegations.
The source said that Paris was on the verge of announcing an end to its relations with the Assad regime which had witnessed major improvement in the past months.
Accusing the regime of involvement in the murder would put more pressure on President Bashar Assad and isolate him, the source told As Safir.
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