The judiciary has detained four people for questioning in the case of the murder of Ramzi Irani, with President Emile Lahoud calling for national unity amid a “suspicious” plan to target Lebanon on the eve of the second anniversary of its liberation from Israel.
State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum said Tuesday that intelligence bodies and the Central Criminal Investigation Department were questioning the four, expressing hope that further leads would turn up in both the Irani murder and the assassination of Jihad Jibril, the son of Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ­ General Command.
Addoum said the Irani murder was the work of professionals, and that those under arrest were involved in an internet-messaging scheme used to confuse investigators.

During the two-week disappearance of Irani, a student official with the banned Lebanese Forces, security personnel received internet messages about his whereabouts, although the information turning out to be false, according to sources close to the investigation.
The sources said that the two LF members, Fadi Shamati and Eliano al-Mir, were detained for their involvement in the messaging scheme.
As for Jibril, Addoum said that both the superintendent of Jibril’s building and bodyguard Mohammed Qaawaj remained
under detention, although they are not accused of complicity in the car bomb that killed the 38-year-old.
Addoum said Jibril was careless and often drove without any escort, despite being a potential target.

For his part, Lahoud called Tuesday for national solidarity and unity to thwart attempts to shake confidence in the country, undermine stability and revive civil strife. According to Lahoud’s visitors, the president said it was no coincidence that a Palestinian official was killed and an LF activist was found dead on the same day. The visitors quoted Lahoud as saying that the timing was “suspicious,” as the country is preparing to celebrate the second anniversary of the liberation of the South.
Lahoud predicted that investigations would reveal the perpetrators of both crimes, and that those who sought to harm civil peace and national achievements would be punished.
Jibril’s body was taken to Damascus on Tuesday for burial in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp south of the Syrian capital. His father, Ahmed, will receive condolences in the camp for three days beginning on Wednesday, a PFLP-GC official said.

Ahmed Jibril told Al-Jazeera satellite television that his group had arrested Jordanian intelligence agents in Lebanon and accused Jordan’s intelligence services of “having become a tool in the hands of (Israel’s) Mossad and US intelligence.”
A government official in Amman denied any Jordanian involvement in the killing.
“There is no truth … to such accusations,” the official said in a statement obtained by Agence France Presse. “It is out of the question for Lebanon to become the target of any action from Jordan.”
The Syrian press on Tuesday gave the assassination little play, reporting it without comment. A fax sent to news agencies in Cyprus by the “Movement of Lebanese Nationalists” claimed responsibility for Jibril’s death, citing Syria’s involvement in Lebanon as its motive.

Meanwhile, a bomb scare on Tuesday morning forced the temporary closure of a street in Tallet al-Khayat, where Jibril was assassinated.
“There has been some information regarding explosives being put in a vehicle in that area,” a security source said. “We are checking it out.”
The street was reopened after a search turned up no explosives, and one security official suggested that the report may have originated in the tension spawned by Monday’s bombing. ­ With agencies

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