BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 25 (UPI) -- The chief investigator in the slaying of a former Lebanese prime minister met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his deputy Farouk Sharaa Tuesday.
A U.N. spokeswoman said Serge Brammertz, head of the U.N.-commissioned probe into the assassination of Rafik Hariri, held separate meetings in Damascus with Assad and Sharaa.
"Commissioner Serge Brammertz went to Damascus today to hold the meeting referred to in the commission's 3rd report dated 14 March, 2006," said the spokeswoman on condition of anonymity.
"Two separate meetings took place, one with President Bashar Assad and one with Vice President Farouk Sharaa," she added.
SANA, the official Syrian News Agency, reported on the meetings and noted that Sharaa met Brammertz in the presence of Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmed Arnous and the ministry's legal advisor, Riyadh Daoudi.
After the meetings, the Belgian prosecutor returned to Lebanon by land amid tight security measures involving the deployment of army troops along the highway from the Syrian border to the commission's headquarters in Monte Verde, northeast of Beirut.
Brammertz succeeded German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis at the head of the commission set up under Security Council resolution 1595 to probe the Feb. 14, 2005 assassination of Hariri in a Beirut blast that also killed 19 others.
The first two reports issued by Mehlis suggested that the assassination could not have happened without the knowledge or contribution of Syrian intelligence which controlled Lebanon at the time of the crime. Consequently Syrian intelligence officers were interviewed by the commission in Vienna.
Hariri's assassination triggered anti-Syria sentiments and forced Damascus to pull out its troops and end 30 years of military presence and political hegemony in Lebanon. Anti-Syria Lebanese politicians accused the Syrian regime of involvement in Hariri's slaying, a charge that Damascus denies.
