BEIRUT: A Syrian suspect was formally arrested in Lebanon Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the assassination of anti-Syrian MP and journalist Gebran Tueni. In a move that increased suspicions of Syrian involvement in the string of assassinations targeting Lebanon for the past year, Military Investigating Magistrate Rashid Mezher issued an arrest warrant for Syrian national Abdel-Qader Abdel-Qader. Abdel-Qader had rented a patch of land near the scene of Tueni's December 12 killing in eastern Beirut.
Judiciary sources told The Daily Star Abdel-Qader, 30, came under suspicion because of phone calls he made before and after the assassination.
Tueni was a key member of Lebanon's anti-Syrian movement, which blames the series of bombings on Syria, accusing it of launching a "terrorist" war on Lebanon since the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri last February.
Anti-Syrian MP Butros Harb, who met with magistrate Mezher during the day, preferred to leave the issue "in its judicial frame."
"The investigation is secret, but there are strong reasons that led to the arrest of this man," Harb said.
According to the sources, investigators are currently looking into phone calls made by Abdel-Qader on December 12 and are tracking down the people he talked to.
Two other Syrians, who were arrested with Abdel-Qader late last week, were released Tuesday following lengthy investigations.
Abdel-Qader is also suspected of having been the roommate of another Syrian believed to have been monitoring Tueni for at least a month before his murder.
According to Elaph, a Syrian opposition Web site, the Lebanese investigation has gathered a significant amount of information and has made headway in identifying suspects in the assassination.
Quoting Lebanese judiciary sources, Elaph reported that all of the suspects work for "the Syrian intelligence apparatus," and added that the group that organized and carried out the assassination consisted of "at least 20 people."
A Dutch team of forensic experts, expected to arrive in Lebanon next week, are set to collect and analyze additional evidence from the scene of the bombing that killed Tueni and his two bodyguards.
According to leading Lebanese daily An-Nahar sources, the crater and damages resulting from the bomb blast indicated that at least 60 kilograms of explosives were placed in a semicircle inside the parked car used to targeted Tueni's armored vehicle.
Meanwhile, the group that claimed responsibility for Tueni's assassination issued a statement warning Serge Brammertz, the new UN chief investigator into the Hariri assassination, against blaming Syria for the killing.
The group, which calls itself the "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant," sent a statement to pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Monday, in which it did not refer to Brammertz by name, but called on him to declare Syria's innocence.
The statement also accused Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor who formerly headed the UN investigation, of "falsely" accusing Syria of being behind Hariri's assassination.
Days before he handed over his post, Mehlis said he believed Syria was "deeply involved" in the murder of the five-time premier.
Referring to Mehlis as "the filthy infidel," the statement said the German prosecutor had resigned his post "because he understood the message and realized that he would suffer a fate similar to all the traitors who stabbed the Arabs and Islam in the back."
