Hariri probe arrests PSP man linked to Hawi assassination

Source: Daily Star, 08-05-2008
BEIRUT: The UN probe committee investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has detained a man in Beirut's Wata al-Mosseitbeh neighborhood on suspicion of involvement in the killing of former Lebanese Communist Party cheif George Hawi, a report published by As-Safir newspaper said Tuesday.
As-Safir, citing witnesses who live in the neighborhood, said UN investigators in a large convoy visited the area on April 14 and raided the house of a man identified as "N.G." who lives opposite Hawi's residence on Jabal al-Arab Street.
The Communist Party's former secretary general was killed in a car bombing in June 2005.
The report said the suspect, a member of the Progressive Socialist Party headed by MP Walid Jumblatt, had left shortly after Hawi's murder to Dubai where he has been working there for nearly two years. He returned to Beirut about six months ago to work at a restaurant.
"I used to see this individual every day on the sidewalk near my parent's house; he used to spend the night smoking sheesha near my father's car until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.," Hawi's son, Raffi Madayan, told Al-Manar television on Tuesday.
Madayan also accused the Lebanese security services of negligence: "I'm very concerned that there might be attempts to cover for the real killer."
In its Tuesday report, As-Safir said investigations on members of the so-called Rafeh network - suspected of being an 'Israeli' spying cell operating in Lebanon - have led to new information concerning Hawi's murder.
Hawi was assassinated when a bomb planted in his car was detonated by remote control as he traveled through Wata al-Moseitbeh. The perpetrator has yet to be identified, but the ruling coalition in Lebanon has usually blamed Syria for this and other explosions in the capital, after the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. Syria has repeatedly denied the charges.