THE HAGUE/BEIRUT: Less than 24 hours before his assassination, the usually unflappable former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was noticeably disturbed by a news report suggesting Syria might be plotting to assassinate him and other senior Lebanese politicians, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard Tuesday.
In his third hearing, former MP Ghattas Khoury told the Hague-based tribunal that that he and former Minister Basil Fuleihan met with Hariri at Qoreitem Palace Feb. 13, 2005 – the eve of his assassination – and were struck by his unusually “upset” response to a report in pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat about credible threats of impending bloodshed in Lebanon.
According to the report, “well-informed European sources” told Al-Hayat the international community had issued “a clear message to Syria,” warning that if “Walid Jumblatt or [Rafik] Hariri were subject to any assassination attempt then that would serve as the final breaking point between Syria and the international community.”
While Hariri received threats “on a daily basis,” Khoury said the former premier seemed shaken this time.
He was “upset, disturbed, as if he took it [the news] very seriously,” Khoury told the tribunal.
“The prime minister used to always say that any attempt on his life is something they will never dare to do,” Khoury continued. “In this particular instance he did not give his usual answer ... He said he would make a few phone calls.”
When Hariri asked about the source of the information, Fuleihan reportedly told him he had heard “it might have been [from] British intelligence based on [wire] tapping in Cyprus,” where they were intercepting Syrian communications, he said.
Khoury’s testimony is part of the “political evidence” being presented before the U.N.-backed tribunal tasked with prosecuting those responsible for killing Hariri and 21 others, including Fuleihan, in a massive bombing nearly 10 years ago. Fuleihan died from his injuries two months after the attack.
And that was not the only indication on the evening of Feb. 13 that something was amiss, Khoury said.
Earlier that day, the head of Hariri’s security detail, Yehaya al-Arab, known as Abu Tareq, had a meeting with Rustom Ghazaleh, a top Syrian intelligence officer based in Lebanon.
Ghazaleh unleashed a “string insults” about Hariri and threatened Abu Tareq, according to Khoury, by saying, “If you were not my friend I wouldn’t have allowed you to return to your home today.” Abu Tareq was uncharacteristically alarmed by the encounter, Khoury said.
He died the following day in the explosion alongside Hariri.
Khoury further testified that at the time of Hariri’s assassination, not a single Lebanese security agency was outside of Syria’s influence. “The Lebanese security agencies were implementing the direct orders of the president of the [Lebanese] republic and of the republic of Syria,” he said.
Khoury also discussed a meeting that took place between various politicians opposed to Syria’s hegemony in Lebanon in the Bristol Hotel Feb. 2, 2005, just two weeks before Hariri’s assassination.
According to the former MP, the meeting was attended by Fuleihan, Khoury and Future Movement MP Ahmad Fatfat, and was noticeably different to the previous two sessions held at the same hotel.
“The meeting confirmed that we had completely moved to the opposition,” Khoury said, in reference to a call for the total withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
It was also the first time that Hariri’s representatives increased their presence and marked themselves out “as a bloc and not as individuals,” Khoury said, explaining that close allies of the former premier who hadn’t attended previous sessions were suddenly there.
“The third Bristol meeting gathered the largest opposition number and there was a clear presence for Hariri’s bloc,” he said.
Khoury proceeded to speak about the day of Hariri’s assassination, saying that he and Fuleihan went to see the former prime minister in the nearby L’Etoile CafĂ© in Downtown Beirut and found him surrounded by a group of reporters.
Recalling his last conversation with the premier, Khoury said the two discussed the Beirut Association for Social Development’s distribution of olive oil to residents in pertinent electoral districts ahead of the 2005 parliamentary elections.
The move was seen by Hariri’s opponents as an attempt to bribe his constituency before the polls, and the opposition wanted to arrange a meeting to tell him so in person, Khoury said.
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