Region | Lebanon
From Lebanon to Brazil - Rana leaves trail of scandal
The high living, scandals, and shady Syrian contacts of Lebanon's most notorious female fugitive have long linked the woman to the country's political corruption.
- AP
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
Beirut : The high living, scandals, and shady Syrian contacts of Lebanon's most notorious female fugitive have long linked the woman to the country's political corruption. Now once again in prison this time in far-off Brazil Rana Abdul Rahim Koleilat, 39, may be connected to something more sinister: the assassination of Lebanon's former leader.
UN investigators have told police they want to question her in the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, former Lebanese premier.
Brazilian police said the investigators want to know whether money allegedly diverted from Al Madina Bank in Lebanon, where Rana worked, was used to finance the slaying.
"It's vital that Miss Koleilat submit herself before the UN commission for questioning," Lebanese Consul General in Sao Paolo, Joseph Sayah, said in a statement to investigators that Brazilian police showed to reporters on Monday.
Rana spent a few months in prison in Lebanon last year, but then jumped bail on fraud charges in a banking scandal and fled the country, allegedly with Syrian help.
She was arrested on Sunday by Brazilian police at a hotel apartment on the outskirts of Sao Paolo.
The Brazilian authorities said they acted on an anonymous tip.
Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Brazil. Lebanese Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza was trying to find a legal basis to demand her extradition.
Rana's Brazilian lawyer said she told him she knows nothing about Hariri's assassination or the bank's missing money and that she offered no bribe.
CONTROVERSY
Her influence even spread to jail
Rana's connection with the private bank was engulfed in controversy. During her 12 years there, she rose from a clerk to an executive making top decisions. Rana quickly became the centre of the scandal shortly after it broke at Al Madina in July 2003. After detecting a cash deficit of more than $300 million (about Dh1,104 million), along with other irregularities, the Central Bank stepped in and took control of Al Madina.
A suit by the owners of the bank accused Rana of issuing a bad check for $3 million and of forging bank documents with the aim of embezzling. She became an instant celebrity at the height of the banking scandal in 2003, with the media scrutinising her lifestyle, gifts and purchases. Rana reportedly handed out presents of expensive cars, apartments and houses to powerful people in Lebanon and Syria.
Her influence even spread to jail, where she reportedly had her cell painted and refurbished. Take-out food was ordered, and a cellular phone brought in. When she was released from jail, she was met by bodyguards and aides who supplied a phone into which she gleefully shouted orders for the beauty shop to prepare for her arrival.
Rana was freed on bail less than two months before Hariri was killed, allegedly under pressure from Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, Major General Rustum Ghazale. She was whisked out of the country through Syria before the collapse of Syria's power in Lebanon with the withdrawal of its army in April. She reportedly spent a few months in Cairo before travelling to Brazil.
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