UN Interrogators Make Another Foray into Baabda to Question President's Son as Lahoud Held Secret Meeting with Aoun

The U.N. commission was reported Sunday to have made a second foray into the Baabda Palace in as many days to question this time President Lahoud's son, Emile Jr., about telephone calls made to his mobile from Rafik Hariri's assassination scene just before and just after the deadly bombing attack. Although the presidential palace denied the second investigation sortie on Saturday, An Nahar said U.N. investigators were at the Palace to "question the President's son not the President." The reported new move by the investigation commission, which is headed by the German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, came a day after international investigators held a six hour questioning session with President Lahoud himself in connection with the phone calls from Hariri's death scene Feb. 14. Despite efforts by the Palace to play down the significance of the presidential interrogation, the local media said six hours of cross-examination were enough to bring Lahoud once again under the glare, especially because the Presidential Guard commander General Mustafa Hamdan has long been in custody as a suspect in Hariri's murder. In another development, An Nahar said Sunday President Lahoud met secretly with Gen. Aoun at the President's family house in Bayada over the previous weekend. An Nahar said Aoun insisted on the secrecy shroud for the meeting, saying he had to cancel the scheduled face-to-face conference with the President at Bayada ten days ago because the meeting was leaked to the media beforehand. There was no word in An Nahar's report about what was discussed in the actual meeting of the two leaders. Lahoud is in desperate need of Aoun's backing to face widespread demands for his resignation because of the shadows of the Hariri assassination.

Beirut, Updated 14 Nov 05, 12:14