Syria's former strongman in Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, who was questioned over former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's murder, committed suicide in his Damascus office Wednesday, the government announced.
The death of Kanaan, 63, comes after a UN team investigating the assassination in Beirut of Hariri interviewed Kanaan and a number of other top Syrian figures in connection with the case last month.
It also comes just two weeks before the UN probe is due to release a report on its findings.
"The cabinet announces the suicide of interior minister Ghazi Kanaan in his office at the beginning of the afternoon," according to a statement published by the state news agency SANA.
"The relevant authorities are investigating," it added, without specifying how Kanaan killed himself at the imposing ministry building in central Damascus.
But his chief aide at the ministry said Kanaan shot himself in the mouth.
"General Kanaan left his office to go home, then he came back after three quarters of an hour, took a gun from the drawer and fired a bullet into his mouth," General Walid Abaza told AFP.
In 2000, Prime Minister Mahmud Zohbi committed suicide in unclear circumstances after the launch of an anti-corruption drive.
Kanaan, who until 2002 served for two decades as Syria's powerful military intelligence chief and virtual viceroy in Lebanon, spoke to Voice of Lebanon radio earlier Wednesday and said it would be his "final declaration".
He denied a private Lebanese television report that he had told the UN probe into Hariri's murder that he received tens of millions of dollars from Hariri to help secure his election victory in 2000.
In the interview, Kanaan also defended the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, saying they had "done their utmost to preserve the unity of Lebanon" during their 29-year deployment.
The deployment came to an end in April amid local and international outrage over the Hariri killing.
Kanaan also accused the media of damaging relations between the two countries.
He said reports since Hariri's February 14 assassination in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront had wronged both himself and the former Lebanese premier. The killing was widely blamed on Syria, which has repeatedly denied any involvement.
"We have affection and mutual respect for Lebanon ... We have served the interests of Lebanon with dignity," Kanaan said, denying reports in the Lebanese media that he showed the UN investigators cheques paid to him by Hariri.
On July 20, Kanaan was quoted in the Beirut daily As-Safir as saying he had no information on the murder, stressing that military intelligence was only in charge of security for Syrian troops and co-ordination with Lebanese authorities.
But Kanaan was seen for two decades as the paramount commander to whom Lebanese leaders reported directly on political and security issues.
Named interior minister in October 2004, he served between 1982 and 2003 as Syrian military intelligence chief for Lebanon. In June, the US government froze Kanaan's assets for his alleged involvement in corruption and support for terrorism.
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