Driver did nott raise suspicions when parking car: report

Source: Al-Manar, 14-12-2007
A judicial source told Lebanese daily Assafir that investigations into the assassination case of Major General Francois Hajj has significantly progressed. "We may have a serious accomplishment in light of evidence gathered by judicial and security authorities," the source told Assafir. He added that at least two suspects purchased a 1978 BMW on Tuesday (the assassination took place on Wednesday) from a used cars merchant in the "Abra" region, east of the southern city of Sidon. The source said that the two suspects had requested the merchant to make contact with the owner of the car who had put a "For sale" advertisement in the used-cars' store. The sources explained that the merchant contacted the owner who showed up immediately and asked for a price between 1500 and 2000 USD. Assafir wrote that the suspects paid cash money for the car and when the seller asked the suspects about making the purchase contract, they told him to give them a copy of his ID and then they would sent it back to him with a copy of the purchase contract. The source also revealed that the bomb had not been planted in the car but it was place in the rear trunk, especially that the 18-hour margin of time between purchasing the car and detonating it was not enough to prepare the car. The Judicial source continued saying that the perpetrators had been eyeing martyr Hajj and that they were aware of his daily schedule as well as his regular security procedures. "The perpetrators carried out their job very easily. It seems as if they were moving in an area they very well know. The driver of the car did not raise suspicions in an area filled with governmental buildings and military barracks, not to mention its adjacency to the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense. Assafir also quoted a security source as saying that the purchased car had not been taken to the Ain el-Helwe Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon, but driven directly to the Awwali region northwards. "This is why we have been focusing on the movement of some radical groups in one of Mount Lebanon's regions. But this does not mean that the investigation is based on a single hypothesis," the security source told Assafir.