DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources disclose that although the Assad government promised to hand over five high-ranking officials for the UN investigator Detlev Mehlis to question in Vienna, only three arrived aboard a special Syrian flight Tuesday, Nov. 29.
They were driven straight to UN offices in the Austrian capital in heavily screened vehicles. Our sources report that each is being quizzed separately starting from the evening of their arrival. The identities of the three officers are concealed under a thick blackout imposed by the Mehlis team. Just before they took off, the Syrian authorities announced the suspects would be flown over in two groups and this was the first. DEBKAfile’s sources offer three reasons for the decision to send the suspects over in two parts:
1. It is a Syrian ploy to force the UN team to send the first group back before releasing the second batch of officers for questioning in Vienna..
2. Damascus wants an interval between the two sets of interrogations to make sure their stories to the UN interrogators match.
3. The Syrians also want to see where Mehlis is heading in his inquiry. They hope to be wiser when they have a chance to question the first group of officers on its return home. Once they are clear on this, they will decide whether or not to let the UN team have the second batch of high-ranking Syrian suspects for questioning in Vienna. | 4. The other two suspects are not considered reliable enough to get out of sight, were washing their hair that night, are expected to come down with a bad case of lead poisoning, etc.. |
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