Posted on 10/01/2005 11:41:08 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A possible attempt to assassinate a Lebanese judge was foiled Saturday after neighbors alerted him to suspicious activity around his car and police found batteries and wires beneath the vehicle, security officials said.
No trace of explosives was found near the car of Judge Nazem Khoury, who is overseeing the investigation into the financial scandals of Lebanon's Al-Madina Bank and ordered its closure.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give official statements, said Khoury had recently received threats from unknown sources.
The incident comes as a U.N.-mandated probe into former Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination nears its end and amid a spate of bombings targeting politicians, journalists as well as commercial and residential areas continues.
The security officials said Khoury's neighbors in the town of Sahel Alma, north of Beirut, noticed suspicious activity around his car at 2 a.m. Saturday and alerted the judge. When Khoury checked from his balcony, he saw a man jump away and leave on a motorcycle with another man.
Police found batteries with wires attached under the car, in addition to cut wires under the steering wheel. Experts and police dogs found no trace of explosives and it was not clear if it was an attempt to assassinate Khoury or sabotage his car.
Khoury is overseeing the case of the scandal-ridden Al-Madina Bank, where a cash deficit of more than $300 million and other irregularities became public in July 2003.
The fugitive chairman of the bank filed a lawsuit in May claiming that the former chief of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon and three of his brothers embezzled more than $70 million in depositors' money.
The incident Saturday comes less than a week after a television anchorwoman narrowly escaped an assassination attempt through a bomb placed under her car. The journalist, May Chidiac, lost her left leg and arm in the blast and is still in intensive care.
The government has warned of the potential for more violence ahead of the release of results of the U.N. Hariri investigation.
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