Rafiq Hariri

Rafiq (Baha AD-DIN) Al-Hariri (رفيق (بهاءالدين) الحريري), born on November 1st 1944 with Saida and dead assassinated the February 14th 2005 with Beirut, is a business man and Politician Lebanon board. Moslem sunnite and married twice, Hariri is father of five children. He makes fortune in Saudi Arabia before directing five governments to Lebanon between 1992 and 2004. Hariri is the tenant of the Seraglio, sits of the offices of the Prime Minister in Beirut, of 1992 with 1998 then of 2000 at 2004.

Biography

Wire of a Working agricultural, it carries out its studies with Saida, then it obtains a diploma of high commercial studies of the Arab Université of Beirut in 1964. It will militate some time within the Arab Nationalist movement of Georges Habache.

It leaves Lebanon at 18 years for Saudi Arabia, where he is successively mathematics professor, then promoter in the oil construction industry. In 1977, the king Khaled charges it with building the palate of Taëf, which it builds in less than six months, which is worth to him the confidence of the crown prince to then, the future king Fahd. It becomes very prosperous then.

In 1979, it repurchases the French company of Oger engineering which becomes international Oger based with Paris, subsidiary of Saudi Oger, which will rebuild most of Beirut at the end of the Lebanese civil war in the Années 1990. With the head of an immense fortune, estimated between 4 and 10 billion dollars, the “Master of Koraytem” is present in fields as varied as the bank, the real estate, industry, the media. He had in Lebanon his own television channel, Future TV, and his daily newspaper, '' Al-Mustaqbal ''. He has also Radio the East, installed in Paris.

Rafiq Hariri is named with the head of five governments between 1992 and 2004: he is Prime Minister for the October 31st 1992 with the December 2nd 1998, then October 23rd 2000 with the October 21st 2004. At this station, it puts its address book at the service of its country while continuing to grow rich, sometimes in a turbid politico-financial context. It then maintains the close relationships with the French president Jacques Chirac and takes part in the financing of its countryside for the French presidential election of 2002.

Opposing to the influence of the government Syria N on its country, after years of objective alliance with Syria, he resigns of his post of Prime Minister, in October 2004, because of tensions with the president Emile Lahoud. He means his intention to unify the members of Parliament of opposition, of which he is one of the tenors, for the legislative elections having to be held the following year.

The attack

The February 14th 2005 with 12:11, in spite of the Shielding of its vehicle, a Attack-suicide made by trapped van of mark Mitsubishi containing only one explosive load of: 1800 kg, made up of a mixture of RDX, PETN and TNT kill it at the same time as a dozen people and wound a hundred passers by on the road of the seaside of Beirut. The intelligence services Syria NS are immediately shown finger by the opposition and part of the population. According to certain testimonys (from the chief Druze Walid Joumblatt and from the journalist Irish Lara Marlow with which Hariri discussed), it would have received threats on behalf of Syria. In December 2005, the former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam confirms these charges:

According to these testimonys, Hariri recalled to Mr. Assad his commitment not to prolong the mandate of Mr. Lahoud, and Mr. Assad answered that there had been a policy change and that the decision had already been made. He added that Mr. Lahoud should be seen like his staff representative in Lebanon and that " to be opposed to him is equivalent to be opposed to Assad him-même". He added whereas he (Mr. Assad) " would prefer to break Lebanon on the heads of Rafic Hariri and (of the leader Druze) Walid Joumblatt to see its word in Lebanon rompue". According to these testimonys, Mr. Assad then threatened Mr. Hariri and Mr. Joumblatt of physical retortions. The meeting would have lasted ten minutes and it was the last time that Mr. Hariri was to see Mr. Assad. After this meeting, Mr. Hariri said to his partisans whom it had of another choice but to hardly support the extension of the Lahoud mandate. This commission also received other testimonys of threats made with Mr. Hariri by members of security services if he would not vote in favor of the prolongation or " if he simply thought of leaving the pays". Commission Report Fitzgerald , March 24th 2005.

Hariri was personally close to the Saoudi royal family. It profited for this reason from the dual nationality libano-Saoudi. It had made benefit from its generosities of many associations and foundations which helped the Lebanese one. It is starting from its gifts that it had known to build a faithful electorate which, with his death, protests vigorously against his political adversaries. The assassination of Hariri is also felt beyond the traditional Community and religious barriers. This reprobation reduces most of the Lebanese population in the streets from Beirut at the time of the manifestation of the March 14th. This assassination marks the beginning of what some call the Révolution of the cedar, which leads at the beginning of the totality of the Syrian troops end April 2005.

Its skin is buried in a Mausolée located on the place of the Martyrs, with the foot of the mosque of which it financed construction.

In April 2005, its second wire Saad decides to launch out in the political career and joined there his/her aunt Bahia Hariri.

Inquire into the attack

September 1st, 2005, on the proposal of the German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, acting within the framework of an international survey elected by the United Nations (UNO) at the request of the France, the public prosecutor of the Lebanese republic Saïd Mirza carries out the imprisonment of five suspects located thanks to their Mobile phone: Moustapha Hamdane (chief of the presidential guard), Jamil Sayyed (former chief of the general security), Ali Al-Haj (ex-director of the interior security forces) and Raymond Azar (chief of the intelligence services of the army).

The October 20th, Mehlis submits his first report to the General secretary of the United Nations Kofi Annan. This report/ratio, based on anonymous testimonies, establishes a bond between several high ranking officials Syrian and Lebanese aiming to the assassination of Rafiq Hariri. This report/ratio is criticized by the Syrian government as being directed politically against him and being stripped of tangible proofs. The retraction of the principal witness of the commission of international survey, Hussam Taher Hussam, informant to be paid by Saad Hariri to appear as principal witness for the prosecution against the Syrian authorities weakens the Mehlis report/ratio. The Mehlis report/ratio is defended by declaring that Hussam was handled by Syria.,

Another element having thrown a discredit upon the survey carried out by Mehlis is the business of testimony Mohamed Zouheir Siddiq (presented during a time of the investigation like principal witness by the team of Mehlis). This last which had claimed to be an important member of the Syrian secret services in Lebanon, had not been in fact that one simple driver of a general Syrian and sought for embezzlement. This last with was arrété in France in October 2005 at the request of the Lebanese prosecutor Saed Mirza of coordination with the board of inquiry. It is in this moment imprisoned in France which refuses its extradition in Lebanon.

At the beginning of December 2005, under the pressure of George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac which threatens Syria of sanctions in the event of not-collaboration to the investigation, Bachar el-Assad accepts that 5 Syrian persons in charge are heard by the investigators of UNO, while continuing to deny any implication of Syria in this business.

The December 29th, the Belgian Serge Brammertz, assistant prosecutor with the International penal court succeeds Detlev Mehlis, whose mandate expires the December 15th and who does not wish to be taken back in his functions. Kofi Annan officializes the nomination. It is the preceding president of the commission which had proposed Brammertz to replace it.

May 30th, 2007, the safety advice of UNO decides accuracy, by 10 votes out of 15, the creation of a special court charged to judge the assassins of Hariri.

The eighth report/ratio made public by the board of inquiry of UNO devoted to the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in July 2007 provided several new information on the organization of this attack.

Wayne Madsen, journalist with the New Yorker charged to follow the political developments of Washington, shows the United States to be behind the assassination of Rafiq Hariri because he was opposed to certain policies of the United States and in particular to the establishment of an American air base in the north of Liban.^,

Friendly bonds with Jacques Chirac

Rafiq Hariri maintained the friendly bonds with Jacques Chirac which it addressed as tu. In May 2007, at the conclusion of its presidency of the Republic, Jacques and Bernadette Chirac will settle in an apartment of 180 m 2 on the quays of the Seine belonging to the Hariri family.

See too

Adnan Addoum

References

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