Chief U.N. investigator Serge Brammertz has asked Syrian authorities for information on the identity of the occupants of the stolen car used in the Nov. 2006 assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, according to well-informed sources. They said Brammertz traveled to Syria last week to ask security and judicial officials for detailed information on how the Honda CRV entered Syrian territories.Yesterday Syria reportedly handed over the stolen car to Lebanon, after potentially possessing it for over 7 months.
Last week, reliable sources informed of the investigation said that the vehicle used in the Gemayel assassination was stolen from the mountain resort of Brummana in October 2006 and taken to an area in the northern sector of the eastern Bekaa valley where car bandits operate.
Shortly after that, a member of Ahmed Jibril's Syrian-backed PFLP-GC approached the gang and bartered the car for a quantity of weapons, the sources added. The car was used in the assassination of Gemayel in suburban Jdaideh, almost a month after it was stolen from Brummana, the sources added. The vehicle was later driven to Syria, which turned it back to Lebanon in Dec. 2006 in line with a warrant issued by the Interpol, they explained.
The well-informed sources told Naharnet on Tuesday that U.N. investigators in the Gemayel probe were focusing on two assumptions. The first hypothesis is that the Honda CRV entered Syrian territories through "legitimate" border checkpoints, meaning that Damascus authorities likely had information on the vehicle's occupants.
The second theory is that the stolen car entered Syria through "illegitimate" passages, which implies that the subject of border crossings -- overseen by Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian sides -- has to be brought up.
| So it entered either legally or illegally. Brilliant, inspector, simply brilliant. |
The U.N. commission is investigating the vehicle's course to pin down the culprits in Gemayel's assassination. It is also studying the possibility that the white Mitsubishi van used in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 murder had crossed into Lebanon from Syria.
Mohammed Zuheir Saddiq, a key witness in the Hariri killing, had told investigators that he saw the van being prepared for the bombing in one of Syria's Palestinian refugee camps.
The sources said that Brammertz has asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon to agree to postpone the submission of his report on Hariri's killing and related crimes from mid-June to mid-July after investigators had laid their hands on important information.