Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide in his office today, officials said, three weeks after he was questioned by a UN team probing the killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
About an hour before Kanaan killed himself, he called a Lebanese radio station to give a statement, saying it might be the last he would make.
Kanaan's suicide came a week before a UN inquiry into Hariri's February killing, presents its findings.
Shortly before news of Kanaan's suicide broke, President Bashar al-Assad told CNN Syria was not involved in Hariri's death and that he could never have ordered it.
Asked if Syrian officials would have ordered the killing without his knowledge, he said: "I don't think so. If it happened then it's treason. "If (Syrians) are implicated they should be punished. International (court) or Syrian, whatever."
Syrian authorities, already under pressure from the United States over Iraq, have grown increasingly nervous over Lebanese and international charges Syria was linked to Hariri's death.
Syrian officials have said in recent weeks the UN report would show Damascus had nothing to do with the killing.
The official news agency SANA reported the suicide and said investigations were under way.
Agencies