AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT: Lebanon released four generals yesterday who had been held for nearly four years without charge over the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri following a ruling by a UN-backed special court.
The four were escorted separately out of Roumieh prison on the outskirts of Beirut in a convoy of vehicles after The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon said there was insufficient evidence to charge them.
In the ruling, the tribunal’s first since opening its doors on March 1, pretrial judge Daniel Fransen granted a request by prosecutor Daniel Bellemare who said the available evidence was “not sufficiently credible” to hold the generals. The men “cannot at this stage of the investigation be considered as either suspects or accused persons,” said Fransen in a decision broadcast live on Lebanese television and via an Internet webcast.
“As a result ... they do not meet the conditions to be placed in provisional detention.” The four had been held in Lebanon since 2005, but were legally in the custody of the special tribunal since Beirut relinquished its jurisdiction in the Hariri case this month.
They are Mustafa Hamdan, 53, the former head of the presidential guard, security services director Jamil Sayyed, 58, domestic security chief Ali Hajj, 52, and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar, 56.
Considered pro-Syrian, the men were detained following the massive February 2005 bomb blast on the Beirut seafront that killed Hariri and 22 other people, stirring a political crisis and causing the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence in Lebanon.
Fransen had instructed the Lebanese authorities to “immediately take the measures necessary to ensure the safety” of the four generals, and to free them without delay.
The son of the murdered leader, Lebanese lawmaker Saad Hariri, said he respected the ruling of the tribunal — the world’s first anti-terrorism court.
“The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is now responsible for what happens after its decisions, which we accept and respect,” Saad said in a televised press conference. “We do not want revenge. All we want is justice.”
Bellemare stressed in a statement yesterday that investigations into the killing were ongoing, and that the generals could still be indicted.
