Names omitted from report

By Mohamad Bazzi 
October 22, 2005
Newsday
Original Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-woside224480000oct22,0,4734794.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines


BEIRUT, Lebanon - The UN probe into Rafik Hariri's assassination raised eyebrows Friday - not just for what it said, but what it left unsaid.

At the last minute, United Nations officials deleted key information contained in the accusation: one witness' testimony that Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother and brother-in-law were among the main plotters of Hariri's killing.

Instead of naming names, the final version of the report referred to the alleged plotters in general terms - as senior Lebanese and Syrian officials. However, an earlier version had said the witness identified those officials, including Maher Assad, the president's younger brother, and Assef Shawkat, the president's brother-in-law and head of Syrian military intelligence.

The final report would have been more devastating to the Syrian regime if two members of the president's family were named in it as suspected plotters. The deleted names came to light after reporters checked previous versions of the Microsoft Word document that contained UN investigator Detlev Mehlis' report, which was e-mailed to the media Thursday night.

In the earlier version, the witness had also named two other Syrian intelligence officials and a Lebanese security chief as the main plotters who met several times in Damascus, including at the presidential palace and at Shawkat's office. Both versions of the report identified the witness as a Syrian living in Lebanon who claims to have worked for the Syrian intelligence services.

Mehlis said Friday he deleted the names because he did not want to give the impression that the witness' allegations were an established fact. He denied being pressured by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to change the report. None of these changes were influenced by anyone, Mehlis said.