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Syria’s Ghazi Kanaan commits suicide

 

        Syria’s Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, 63, committed suicide on Wednesday Oct. 12, according to the official news agency of Damascus, Syria.

      The suicide comes two weeks before a UN report-that implicated Kanaan’s involvement into the Feb.14 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and with a bombing in central Beirut that killed 20 people-would be published.

        ”Kanaan left his office to go home, then he came back after three quarters of an hour- and fired a bullet into his mouth," General Walid Abaza told the AFP news agency. An investigation into the suicide by authorities is now underway according to Syrian Arab News Agency.

        Earlier that day Kanaan was interviewed by the Voice of Lebanon radio station in which he told reporter Warda Zamel that, “this is the last statement I might make.”

        Although, Kanaan denied any connection to the assasination in February, President Bashar al-Assa of Syria began to pull his troops out of Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

        During Kanaan’s last interview, he said, "I want to make clear that our relation with our brothers in Lebanon was based on love and mutual respect … We have served Lebanon’s interest with honour and honesty."

        The US Treasury froze Kanaan’s assets for his suspected involvement with terrorist groups.

        Kanaan has served as a top security official in Beirut since 1982 until 2002. While in power he required Lebanese officials to report all security and political issues to him.

        In 2002 he was appointed of political security in Damascus. He was then appointed Syrian Interior Minister since 2004.