4 Generals Remain Suspects
Former head of the U.N. commission investigating the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, Detlev Mehlis, said the four released generals remain suspects.
He told pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that the ruling by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) has no bearing on the generals” guilt or innocence and that they can still be indicted at a later stage.
Mehlis said that the officers” arrest was "legal and necessary for a period of five months that followed his recommendation to Lebanese judicial authorities for the preventive detention of the four suspects."
Under Lebanese law, which also guides the activities of the STL, suspects detained for crimes perceived to threaten national security can be held indefinitely without charge.
Mehlis stressed that the arrest of the four generals was based on "evidence and testimonies of witnesses."
The four generals have been detained in Lebanon since August 2005. They are the former head of the presidential guard, Mustafa Hamdan, 53, security services director Jamil Sayyed, 58, domestic security chief Ali Hajj, 52, and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar, 56.
Lebanon released them on Wednesday following a ruling by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
In the ruling, the tribunal”s first since opening its doors on March 1, pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen granted a request by prosecutor Daniel Bellemare who said the available evidence was "not sufficiently credible" to hold the generals.