Bellemare Hands Down Decision on 4 Generals to Fransen
The international tribunal”s general prosecutor Daniel Bellemare on Monday handed down his decision on the fate of the four detained generals to the pre-trial judge but there were no reports yet on the nature of the decision.
Pre-trial judge Daniel 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.
Al-Jadeed TV said Fransen will announce his decision during a press conference. The Lebanese side that will be informed about the court”s decision is state prosecutor Saeed Mirza, the network added
Bellemare”s spokesperson Radia Ashouri told Future TV that the content of the prosecutor”s decision would only be made public once Fransen allows that to happen.