14 April 2012
BEIRUT: The Syrian army could not have shot dead Ali Shaaban on the Lebanese-Syrian border earlier this week, Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali said Friday.
After paying his respects to the family and colleagues of the Al-Jadeed TV cameraman, Ali told reporters that “it isn’t possible that the Syrian army would open fire so heavily ... the intensity of the gunfire raises suspicions that it was not the Syrian army.”
Ali said the area from which the gunfire was directed was “under the control of terrorists.”
Shaaban, 30, died in a car when his crew came under heavy gunfire from what Al-Jadeed said was the Syrian army, while he was on an assignment in the border region of Wadi Khaled.
The envoy said Syria was serious about investigating Shaaban’s killing, saying “it is the side most interested in revealing the truth.”
Ali urged Al-Jadeed to await the outcome of investigations, saying the station erred by not putting a symbol identifying it as press on the television crew’s car.
Meanwhile, a host of officials from across the political divide, and members of the media, paid condolences to Shaaban’s family. Among them were Ministers Ali Hasan Khalil, Adnan Mansour, Salim Jreissati, Walid Daouk, Ghazi Aridi, Mohammad Fneish and Alaeddine Terro. Former Speaker Hussein Husseini and Iran’s ambassador, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, were also in attendance.
U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly sent her condolences by telegram.
In Tripoli, members of the media staged a sit-in in solidarity with Al-Jadeed, as a military prosecutor heard the testimonies of Shaaban’s colleagues about the shooting in the nearby Serail.
Copyright The Daily Star 2012.
