Mehlis May Interrogate Syria's Spy Masters in Switzerland?

U.N. chief investigator into Rafik Hariri's assassination Detlev Mehlis plans to ask for a few weeks extension of his mission in Beirut in a report he would submit to U.N. chief Kofi Annan Aug. 25, United Nations Beirut spokesman Nejib Friji says. Friji denied reports that Mehlis will go from Geneva to New York to submit his preliminary report about his findings. "He will return straight to Beirut from Geneva and will submit his procedural report, explaining that he needs a few additional weeks to complete the investigation," he was quoted as saying by al-Mustaqbal newspaper Thursday. Mehlis left for Geneva on a 'private mission' on Tuesday. Media reports said he might be arranging for interrogating Syria's former spy masters in Lebanon on neutral Swiss grounds should the Assad regime remain adamant against letting the Berlin prosecutor to go to Damascus for the questioning. The Syrian intelligence officers Mehlis wants to interrogate reportedly are Rustom Ghazaleh, Mohammed Makhlouf and Jameh Jameh. All are brigadier generals and all were serving in Lebanon when Hariri was murdered Feb. 14 in Beirut.