BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Police in Lebanon have made their first arrest in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri since the release of a U.N. report on the incident.
Mahmoud Abdel-Al, a member of the Sunni Islamist al-Ahbash group, allegedly made a call to the cell phone of Lebanon's president, Emile Lahoud, just before a bomb detonated in Beirut, killing Hariri and 22 others, the Financial Times reported.
The arrest ordered by a magistrate in Lebanon was the first response to a United Nations report released Thursday that said Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services were aware of plans to kill Hariri.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Abdel-Al's brother, Ahmad Abdel-Al, was identified by German investigator Detlev Mehlis -- the head of the U.N. team -- as a "key figure" in the investigation. The report said Ahmad Abdel-Al was in touch with Lebanese security officials before and after the assassination and tried to hide information from investigators, according to the U.N. report.
