[JURIST] The Syrian government announced Monday that it will put former Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam [Wikipedia profile] on trial for high treason and investigate his alleged acts of corruption in response to demands by Syrian parliament members [JURIST report] that Khaddam be investigated and following his expulsion from the country's ruling Baath party. Khaddam claimed in an interview last week that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [BBC profile] had threatened the life of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri [JURIST news archive] at a meeting in Damascus two months prior to Hariri's assassination on February 14. A UN committee, led by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, has been looking into the Hariri assassination [UN materials] and released a new report [JURIST report] last month which further implicated Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in Hariri's death. In response to the government's announcement Monday, parliamentary speaker Mahmud al-Abrash said in a letter that he hopes Khaddam will be brought to trial promptly. AFP has more.