Syrian Suspect Arrested in al-Hariri Assassination

Some shocker, huh, that Syria was likely behind the murder of Rafik al-Hariri?

A MAIN suspect in the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates, an Arab television station reports.

UAE-based Al Arabiya said Mohammed Zuhair al-Siddiq was arrested in the emirate of Sharjah and was being held by UAE security authorities. It gave no more details.

An international court convened in The Hague in March to try suspects in the murder, four years after the politician's death.

Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a car bomb blast in Beirut on February 14, 2005 that sparked an international outcry.

Many anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians accused Syria of being behind the bombing, a charge Damascus denied. But the protests and political pressure that mounted after the killing forced Syria to withdraw forces it had maintained in its smaller neighbour since 1976.

This guy was charged several years ago while residing in France, although some French judges wouldn't allow an extradition.

The whereabouts of Siddiq, a former Syrian intelligence officer, have been unknown since March 2008 when he left France.

Lebanon's prosecutors believed Siddiq had an indirect role in the February 14, 2005, killing of Hariri and 22 others, and they charged him with murder in October 2005.

Siddiq was arrested in a Paris suburb that month after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, but French judges rejected Beirut's extradition request because they received no guarantees he would not face the death penalty.

He was freed in 2006.

There's some French-style justice for you.