A YouTube video uploaded on Sunday showed Hussam Hussam -- who has
claimed to be a witness in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri – in
the custody of a group of Syrian rebels.
The group said it was part of the “brigades” that “stormed” the
Syrian capital Damascus.
In the video, Hussam again identified himself as a witness in the
Hariri case and said he wants to be sent to Beirut where he would unveil “big
surprises that no one would have ever expected.”
Also in the video, the leader of the armed group addresses former
premier Saad Hariri.
“In my name and in the name of the revolutionaries of Damascus and
Syria, we will send you a gift: Hussam Hussam,” the rebel commander says,
addressing Hariri.
In a phone interview with LBCI television, the same rebel
commander, who identified himself as Abu Ali al-Doumani, said Hussam was
captured at a flying checkpoint manned by Syrian rebels in the Damascus
neighborhood of Mazzeh.
Al-Doumani told LBCI that his group was in contact with ex-PM Saad
Hariri and that it intends to hand over Hussam to Lebanon.
In August 2010, Hussam confirmed claims by Hizbullah leader Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah that an Israeli agent identified as Ghassan al-Jidd was
present at the bombing scene on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.
Hussam told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV station that al-Jidd was near
HSBC Bank -- which is only 400 meters away from the blast scene -- when the
bombing went off.
Hussam had claimed he had been coerced into fingering Syria in
Hariri's murder.
The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon tasked with probing
Hariri’s assassination said Thursday it had set a provisional date in March
next year to begin a trial over the 2005 bomb attack.
The trial was tentatively scheduled to start on March 25, 2013,
the STL said in a statement, although the four defendants remain at large.
In June 2011, the Netherlands-based court issued arrest warrants
for four members of Hizbullah: Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein
Anaissi, and Assad Sabra.
Interpol has also issued a "red notice" on the suspects,
but so far the Lebanese authorities have failed to arrest them and Hizbullah
has denied responsibility.
Nasrallah has dismissed the tribunal as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy
and vowed that no member of Hizbullah would ever be found or arrested.
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/47455
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