BEIRUT: A Lebanese judge yesterday ordered the release on bail of three men held in connection with the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, judicial sources said.
Investigative Judge Sakr Sakr set minimal bail for the release of Mahmoud Abdel Aal, Ahmed Abdel Aal and Ibrahim Jarjoura, a Syrian, four days before a UN tribunal into the assassination was due to start work in The Hague.
The charges against them were not dropped and they could still be summoned by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which starts work on Sunday. But their release now meant they would not be moved to The Hague with other detainees.
Sakr rejected bail requests for Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj and Gen. Jamil Al-Sayyed, two of four security chiefs still detained over the assassination. The four were seen as crucial members of a pro-Syria establishment that controlled Lebanon at the time of the killing.
The registrar of the tribunal said on Tuesday he expected the prosecutor to ask for detainees to be transferred to The Hague. Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has 60 days from taking office to request the transfer of people and evidence.
He has yet to name suspects in the assassination, which anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have accused Damascus of orchestrating.
