Damascus, Syria ? Syria’s interior minister, who effectively controlled Lebanon for two decades, was found dead in his office Wednesday, days before the release of a U.N. report that could implicate high-ranking officials in the murder of Lebanon’s former prime minister.

The Syrian government called the death of Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan a suicide, but opponents claimed it could be a murder to cover up top-level involvement.

The news of Kenaan’s death shocked Syrians, and the government felt compelled to stress it would not affect the country’s political stability.

Kenaan, who was Syria’s intelligence chief in Beirut for 20 years, was one of at least seven Syrians recently questioned by a U.N. team investigating the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.