A Syrian court has issued subpoenas for Druze leader MP Walid Jumblatt, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade and journalist Fares Khashan, Hamade said Monday. "There were warrants for questioning ordered by a Syrian penal tribunal ... against Walid Jumblatt, myself and journalist Fares Khashan," Hamade said, adding that he considered the warrants "a threat against our security, after everything that has happened.""We will present these warrants to the international probe [investigating the murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri] as new threats against Lebanese personalities are already being made," Hamade said. Syria's military judiciary had filed a lawsuit against Jumblatt and "others revealed by the investigation" accusing the defendants of "inciting the U.S. administration to occupy Syria" and of "defaming" Damascus by blaming it for the series of bombings and assassinations in Lebanon last year.
Hamade also linked the subpoenas to the international probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, hinting they came shortly before an expected meeting between Syrian president Bashar Assad and the head of the probe team Serge Brammertz. "It is worth noting that we received this a few days maybe before the international probe questions top Syrian officials in Damascus," Hamade said.