A fugitive bank executive wanted for questioning in the U.N. probe of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination was arrested in Brazil Monday on an unrelated charge, authorities said.
The Lebanese consul general in Sao Paulo said Rana Abdel Rahim Koleilat, 39, was wanted in Lebanon for bank fraud. She also was being sought for questioning by the U.N.'s Independent International Investigation Commission, which is probing the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 20 other people in downtown Beirut last year, consul general Joseph Sayah said.
"It's vital that Miss Koleilat submit herself before the U.N. commission for questioning," Sayah said in a faxed statement to investigators that Brazilian police showed to reporters.
Sayah did not say why it was important for the panel to question Koleilat, and U.N. officials had no immediate comment.
Police inspector Nicanor Nogueira Branco said police acting on an anonymous tip found Koleilat Sunday in a furnished apartment at a hotel on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.
Koleilat offered officers up to $200,000 to release her and was arrested on a charge of attempted bribery, Branco said.
Lebanese consular officials spent hours Monday inside the police station where Koleilat was being held, but declined to speak with journalists.
Koleilat made headlines in Lebanon and Europe for years in connection with questions about her role in the disappearance of $300 million from the private Medina Bank where she worked. The funds' disappearance was the worst financial scandal at a Lebanese bank since the country's 1975-90 civil war.
Harari's assassination awoke the Lebanese people from their slumber and silence in the face of Syrian occupation. The resulting Cedar Revolution (complete with Protest Babes), forced Syria to withdraw its uniformed soldiers. Baby Assad and his minions have been implicated in the assassination by the Mehlis Report.
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