Brazilian police have arrested a Lebanese woman wanted for bank fraud and suspected of links to the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, officials said. Acting on an anonymous tip, police arrested Rana Abdel Rahim Koleilat, 39, on Sunday at the Parthenon Accor Hotel in Brazil's Sao Paulo city, police inspector Nicanor Nogueira Branco said in an official statement. Koleilat, who was carrying a false passport identifying her as Rana Klailat of Northern Ireland, offered police up to 200,000 Brazilian reals ($94,000) to release her and was arrested for attempted bribery, the police statement said.| "Faith, an' yez don't look Oirish, lass!... $94,000 to let yez flit? Why, I don't think so, lass!" |
The commission was created by the UN Security Council in April 2005, soon after al-Hariri's killing. Brazilian authorities were consulting British officials to determine whether Koleilat's passport was legitimate, Branco said. The passport said it had been issued in the Lebanese capital of Beirut by the British Embassy there in 2002, and listed Koleilat as a "British Overseas Citizen".