Saddiq brother accuses France of killing main Hariri witness

Source: AFP & NowLebanon, 09-04-2008
The brother of a Syrian man who is a witness in the investigation of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri's assassination accused France of being involved in the killing, on Wednesday in a Syrian newspaper interview.
"The French authorities helped facilitate the disappearance of Mohammed Zuhair Al-Saddiq with the aim of his being liquidated by another party, or they liquidated him themselves," charged Imad Al-Saddiq, .
"My brother was under the protection of French authorities," he told Al-Watan newspaper.
Saddiq, who lives in Damascus, accused "Lebanese parties," including Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, of plotting "with the French to kill (my) brother."
"The assassins want the finger of blame to be pointed at Syria on the basis that it was the only party to benefit from his disappearance."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday that the witness, a former intelligence officer, had disappeared from his suburban home near the French capital. "But I do not know under what conditions and if there was a police presence to watch him," he said.
Saddiq, who was under an international arrest warrant that was requested by a Lebanese prosecutor, was detained in October 2005 in a Paris suburb in connection with the February 2005 assassination of Hariri.
Saddiq's family says it has had no contact with him for two months.