Tribunal”s Pre-Trial Judge to Announce Decision on Generals on Wednesday
Pre-Trial Judge of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Daniel Fransen will announce his decision on the fate of the four detained generals on Wednesday.
The tribunal said that Fransen will announce his decision at 2:00 pm Beirut time after the tribunal”s general prosecutor Daniel Bellemare handed down his decision on the fate of the generals to the pre-trial judge.
Fransen had issued a ruling asking Bellemare to either justify the need to keep the prisoners in custody or to order their release by April 27.
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.
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said from the Grand Serail that the release of the generals does not imply their innocence and keeping them in prison doesn”t mean they were involved in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri”s killing.
"It is up to Fransen to take the appropriate decision after studying the file," Najjar said after meeting with Premier Fouad Saniora.
The Lebanese side that will be informed about the court”s decision is state prosecutor Saeed Mirza, al-Jadeed TV said.
Bellemare”s spokesperson Radia Ashouri told Future News TV that the content of the prosecutor”s decision on Monday "would only be made public once Fransen allows that to happen."