Witnesses to Hariri Crime Transferred to The Hague
The four Lebanese judges to the international tribunal would be sworn in at the court headquarters in The Hague before March 15, the Markaziya newsletter reported on Thursday.
The privately-owned newsletter quoted unnamed judicial sources as saying the era prior to the international tribunal”s launching on March 1st would be "decisive in defining the fate of the four generals and the remaining jailed suspects."
"If they were not set free by the Lebanese judiciary, then transferring them to the jurisdiction of the international tribunal at The Hague would be the only option."
The four generals are Jamil Sayyed, Ali Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan who respectively headed the General Security Department, the Internal Security Forces, Military Intelligence and the Presidential Guards Brigade.
The sources said the generals and three jailed civilian suspects – brothers Ahmed and Mahmoud Abdul Aal and Syrian Ibrahim Jarjoura – would be under the international tribunal”s jurisdiction prior to the start of court hearings."
"Major witnesses in the case have already been transferred to The Hague and are under the witness protection program," they explained.
Names of the witnesses would only be disclosed after their families are moved to a safe location, the sources added.