Paris ? Police arrested a former Syrian intelligence officer who is considered an important witness in a U.N. investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, officials said Monday.

Mohammed Zuhair Al-Siddiq was taken into custody Sunday in the Paris area by France’s DST counterintelligence service, police said. He was the subject of an international arrest warrant and is expected to be extradited, the officials said.

The arrest warrant, issued by Lebanese Magistrate Elias Eid, accused Al-Siddiq of giving false testimony and misleading the U.N. investigation, judicial officials in Lebanon said.

Al-Siddiq has been billed by Arab media as being a leading witness in the inquiry by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis of Hariri’s Feb. 14 killing.

Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Fatfat, a close Hariri ally, said Al-Siddiq’s testimony was inaccurate “perhaps because he wanted it this way, either for personal interest or perhaps because he was planted to mislead the investigation.”

“It will all show in court,” he told Voice of Lebanon radio, after being asked about the arrest.