Suspect arrested in Hariri assassination

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, April 20 (UPI) -- A former Syrian intelligence officer and suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was arrested in the United Arab Emirates.

U.A.E. security officers arrested Mohammad Zuhair al-Siddiq in the emirate of Sharjah in a weekend raid, Gulf News reports with few specifics.

French officials arrested Siddiq in Paris in 2005 following charges by Lebanese authorities. Paris refused to extradite the former intelligence officer for fear he would face execution. He was later freed in 2006, but details on his whereabouts were vague.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon convened in March to examine the 2005 assassination of Hariri, who was killed along with 21 others in a massive suicide bombing in downtown Beirut.

The arrest of Siddiq comes as Lebanese officials suggested Beirut was prepared to release four Lebanese generals -- Jamil Sayyed, Ali Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan -- accused of ties to the Hariri assassination.

There has been mounting speculation that the Hariri assassination was carried out with the support of allies to Syria. Damascus had a heavy hand in Lebanon during the decades-long civil war there, and Hariri held notably anti-Syrian views.

The tribunal is the first such body to examine the crime of terrorism. The trial is expected to last at least five years.