Zuheir Mohammed al-Siddiq is still alive. So is Hussam Taher Hussam. Which is problematic for the case against Syria by the UN.
Der Spiegel, in Germany, revealed in an investigative piece, that a central witness in UN-Hariri report is a convicted fraudster - who not only has been convicted several times for embezzlement and fraud (a la Chalabi), Zuheir Mohammed al-Siddiq received a large sum of money for his testimony from an unknown third party. Reportedly he called his brothers from Paris saying, "Now I'm a millionaire".
Contact between al Siddiq and the UN investigation team headed by Detlef Mehlis was allegedly made through Syrian dissidents - in the form of long-lost-uncle Syrian Rifaat al-Assad, family of the Syrian President who more than once offered himself as "alternative President of Syria" to whomever can exercise regime change in Damascus. It turns out that it was al-Siddiq who implicated Bashar al-Asad's brother and brother-in-law in the killing - leading the current war cymbals from Bushco to 'do something serious' about Syria.
According to the German article, the Syrian government has provided ample documentation to various western governments on al-Siddiq and the UN investigating Commission is well aware that it had been lied to by al-Saddiq, who at first had affirmed to have left Beirut one month before the assault on Rafiq al-Hariri, but then admitted in late September he took part in a meeting of Lebanese security officials who drew up a plan to kill Hariri. He then allegedly left Syria for a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia before ending up in France, where he was arrested and later interviewed by U.N. investigators.
The spokesman for Syria's own investigation into the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri, Ibrahim Darraji, said Monday the committee would do all its hands to authenticate claims made by a witness, Hussam Taher Hussam.
Hussam, who was known as the masked witness, had told the UN-backed investigation team into Hariri's murder that the Syrian regime was responsible for Hariri's assassination, which took place on February 14, 2005.
However, Hussam had retracted his previous claims after he fled Lebanon on Sunday and returned to Syria where he said that all the statements he made about Syria's involvement to German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis were false.
Hussam said, in a news conference Monday in Damascus, that his testimony was "false." Darraji said that the Syrian own investigation committee into Hariri's murder would find out for itself "how false Hussam's witness is." Darraji stressed that there were two key witnesses on which Mehlis prosecuting case was built. They included Mohammad Zuhair Al-Siddiq, who is currently in jail in France and Hussam who retracted on his testimony to Mehlis.
"The report, which was earlier submitted to the UN Security Council, has been knocked out" after Monday's statement by Hussam, Darraji said.
"It depended on my testimony by as much as 40 percent. I do not wish to exaggerate," Hussam said. He added that he had served as an agent for Syrian and Lebanese intelligence in Lebanon. He spoke of how he was offered expensive gifts and money to stick to his testimony.
http://www.champress.net/english/index.php?page=show_det&id=1355
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