A Syrian committee probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri announced yesterday that it had conducted interviews with a number of witnesses and started analyzing the flood of mails and e-mails it has received on the case. The newly set up Special Judicial Committee, or SJC, also pledged full cooperation with the UN inquiry into the assassination of Hariri and the Lebanese judicial authorities concerned to find out the truth behind the murder. âThe SJC has already interviewed several witnesses who voluntarily showed up at the committeeâs premises in Mazza District since we actually began our round-the-clock meetings on Nov. 6. We have also started analyzing the various kinds of data sent to us by witnesses either by post or by e-mail,â Judge Ghada Murad, public prosecutor and head of the SJC, said at a news conference.Murad said her committee would cooperate fully with the UN inquiry. However, the investigation was based on âthe rules of justice and the fact that all suspects are innocent until proven otherwise,â she stressed. Foreign Minister Farouk Shara earlier said his country would cooperate fully with the UN investigating team even though Damascus has branded the UN report released on the killing last month as âpolitically motivated.â âSyria is quite keen on cooperating fully with the UN inquiry and creating the necessary and appropriate mechanisms and procedures to achieve this,â Shara was quoted by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency as saying. However, neither Shara nor Murad said whether Damascus would comply with a request by the head of the UN investigation team, Detlev Mehlis, earlier this week to interview six Syrian officials in Lebanon, including Maj. Gen. Asef Shawkat, bother-in-law of President Bashar Assad.