Two Syrian officers returned to Damascus on Tuesday after being questioned in Vienna, Austria, about the assassination of late Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri.
The two, Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon, Lt. Gen. Rustom Ghazali, and his assistant Jamea Jamea, were among the five Syrians questioned in Austria on Monday by UN investigators regarding the murder, according Reuters.
The investigation, led by Detlev Mehlis of the UN, is seeking to find those behind the February 14 bombing in Beirut which killed Hariri and 22 others.
Syria has been suspected of having a hand in the attack, a fact which led to unprecedented civil outrage in Lebanon, ultimately forcing Syria to withdraw from Lebanese territory after almost 30 years of occupation.
On Tuesday morning protesters gathered outside the main gate of the UN's Vienna International Center offices where the questioning was taking place.
The group reportedly hoped to show its rejection of what they believed was a case of scapegoating Syria to justify a similar invasion into the country such as that led by the United States into Iraq in 2003.
"We are not here to support the regime [of Syrian president Basher al-Assad] we are here to show our solidarity with the Syrian people who risk becoming the next victims of war after the invasion of Iraq," Tamman al-Kilani, a Vienna-based medical doctor, told Adnkronos International.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
