Rana Koleilat may be connected to Hariri murder plot
BEIRUT, Lebanon --The high living, scandals, and shady Syrian contacts of Lebanon's most notorious female fugitive have long linked the woman to the country's political corruption.
Now once again in prison -- this time in Brazil -- Rana Koleilat may be connected to something more sinister: the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
U.N. investigators have told police they want to question her in the assassination. Brazilian police said investigators want to know whether money allegedly diverted from Lebanon's Al-Madina Bank, where Koleilat once worked, was used to finance the slaying.
"It's vital that Miss Koleilat submit herself before the U.N. commission for questioning," Joseph Sayah, Lebanon's consul general in Sao Paulo, Brazil, said in a statement to investigators that Brazilian police showed to reporters Monday.
Koleilat spent time in prison in Lebanon in 2004, but then jumped bail on fraud charges in a banking scandal and fled the country, allegedly with Syrian help. She was arrested Sunday by Brazilian police.
The U.N. commission's spokeswoman in Beirut would not confirm or deny that Koleilat was wanted for questioning.
Hariri was killed Feb. 14, 2005, by a truck bombing in Beirut, sparking mass anti-Syrian protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon. The U.N. commission has blamed Syrian and allied Lebanese intelligence officials in the murder of Hariri and 20 others.
Brazilian authorities said they arrested the 39-year-old Koleilat after an anonymous tip. On Thursday, the chief U.N. investigator briefs the U.N. Security Council about the inquiry's progress, and the arrest could provide more ammunition against Syrian officials implicated in the assassination, particularly the last Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon.
The new U.N. investigator, Serge Brammertz, released his report in New York on Tuesday. In contrast to the earlier reports by Detlev Mehlis, Brammertz said the commission has received better cooperation from Syria. But the report gave few new details of the inquiry.
Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Brazil, where Koleilat also faces charges of trying to bribe police officers to release her. Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza reportedly was trying to find a legal basis to demand that she be handed over, and Lebanese judicial officials told the AP authorities will seek to focus on the bank fraud charges.
Koleilat's Brazilian lawyer said she told him she knows nothing about Hariri's assassination or the bank's missing money, and that she offered no bribe to police.
During 12 years at the private Al-Madina bank, Koleilat rose from a clerk to an executive, and she quickly became the center of the scandal after it broke in July 2003. After detecting a cash deficit of more than $300 million, along with other irregularities, the Central Bank stepped in and took control of Al-Madina.
A lawsuit accused Koleilat of issuing a bad check for $3 million and of forging bank documents with the aim of embezzling. Several depositors also have filed suit against her and the bank's owners.
Koleilat was interrogated and jailed for several months in 2004.
She became a celebrity at the height of the banking scandal, with the media scrutinizing her lifestyle, purchases and gifts. Koleilat reportedly handed out expensive cars, apartments and houses to powerful people in Lebanon and in Syria.
Her influence even spread to jail, where she reportedly had her cell painted and refurbished and ordered takeout food. When she was released, she was met by bodyguards and aides who supplied a phone into which she gleefully shouted orders for the beauty shop to prepare for her arrival, newspapers said.
Koleilat's power reportedly stems from her secret marriage to one of two brothers who own the bank; media reports also say she paid protection money to Syrian intelligence officials.
Her case highlights the corruption that has ravaged Lebanon for decades. Paying off Syrian intelligence officers and providing gifts to influential politicians and business people was common during the period when Syria influenced everything in Lebanon, from picking a president to harassing a political foe, and even cutting a business deal or finding a stolen car.
Koleilat was freed on bail less than two months before Hariri was killed, allegedly under pressure from Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Rustum Ghazale. She was whisked out of the country before the Syrian army withdrew in April and reportedly spent time in Egypt before going to Brazil.
The bank's fugitive chairman, Adnan Abu Ayash, later filed a lawsuit accusing Koleilat, Ghazale and three of the Syrian's brothers of laundering and theft of more than $70 million in depositors' money. Lawyer Jean Azzi claimed Koleilat would withdraw money from the bank and transfer it to accounts she opened in the names of Ghazale and his brothers. (AP)
Lebanonwire.com | Rana Koleilat may be connected to Hariri murder plot