Conflicting Reports on Syrian Arrest Warrants against Lebanese Officials, FSA Member
Contradictory reports emerged on Wednesday on whether Lebanon received any Syrian arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad on charges of “arming and financing terrorist groups in Syria.”
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper the reports, saying the warrants will be referred on Wednesday to the general prosecution.
However, Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi told LBCI that the judiciary didn't receive any warrants, saying that “he heard about the matter via media outlets.”
Later, Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali held talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.
The ambassador told reporters that the two officials discussed the Syrian arrest warrants, but he didn't hand Mansour any documents concerning the matter.
Ali said that Syrian authorities tasked lawyer Rashad Salamah filing a lawsuit against those who “cooperated with the Free Syrian Army and armed it.”
Media reports said on Tuesday that the Interpol's office at the Internal Security Forces received the warrants by e-mail and forwarded it to Charbel, who in his turn informed State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr of the content of the warrants.
MP Saqr described the matter as a “badge of honor.”
The move comes in light of requests by the Lebanese judiciary to question Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, a colonel identified only as Adnan as suspects in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha and Buthaina Shaaban, Syrian President Bashar Assad's media adviser, to be questioned as a witness in the case.
Samaha was arrested in August on charges of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Lebanon at Syria's behest.
OTV and al-Akhbar newspaper recently revealed that MP Saqr had been carrying out arms deals with Syrian opposition members, with the television station airing leaked recordings of conversations between the lawmaker and Free Syrian Army official al-Meqdad.
Saqr said in a statement on Tuesday that the arrest warrants prove that the Assad regime “forged the recordings.”
He previously accused OTV and al-Akhbar of tampering with the audiotapes and saying that he will file a lawsuit against them.
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