DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Syria Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa held Lebanese media responsible for the suicide of Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan by circulating allegations about him.
Sharaa said at Kenaan's funeral Thursday that certain media outlets leaked "unjust and vague information" about his statements to an international committee probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, "contributing as such to the killing of Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan."
"There is nothing in the (Syrian) regime that Major General Kenaan complained about, he only suffered from being wronged by the media," Sharaa said, the official news agency, SANA, reported.
Kenaan, who was head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon for 20 years, was shot Wednesday in his office in Damascus. Official Syrian statements said the death was a suicide.
A Lebanese television station, New TV, said Tuesday Kenaan accepted bribes and payoffs during his long service in Lebanon.
General Prosecutor Mohammed Louji said the investigation into Kenaan's suicide showed that he killed himself with his personal gun by a shot in the mouth.
Louji said Kenaan's secretary and clerk heard the shot and when they went into the office they found Kenaan lying on his back behind his desk, still holding the arm in his right hand and breathing with difficulty.
Kenaan was taken hospital where he died.
