Lebanese judge rejects release of four generals (Roundup)

Beirut - A Lebanese investigating judge rejected Friday a release request by the defence of the four high-ranking Lebanese generals, detained since 2005 for suspected involvement in the murder that year of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, a judicial source said Friday. 'Judge Sakr Sakr has denied all requests for the release of the four detained Lebanese generals,' a source at the Lebanese Ministry of Justice told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the condition of anonymity. The judge took his decision following deliberations with the public prosecution, the source said. The four generals, who are currently held in Lebanon's central jail in Roumieh, 20 kilometers northeast of Beirut, are the former head of the presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan, security services director Jamil Sayyed, domestic security chief Ali Hajj and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar. Unconfirmed reports indicated that the four generals may be transferred to The Hague, once the UN Special tribunal is launched on March 1st, to try suspects in the Hariri assassination. The pro-Syrian camp in Lebanon have maintained that the arrest of the four generals was a political pressure imposed on Syria, since the men were close allies of Damascus and were cooperating with Syrian security forces during the Syrian political and military presence in the country, which ended in 2005 following the Hariri assassination. However, on Wednesday, Judge Sakr released three others, from a total of seven suspects held since 2005 over the murder of Hariri. No reason was given by the judicial authorities for the release of the three, but observers speculated that a deal might have been struck with these men to testify against the key suspects in return for their freedom. None of the seven who were arrested in connection with Hariri's murder four years ago have been indicted, as the Lebanese authorities have been waiting for the UN probe to conclude and the court be set up. In remarks carried in the Lebanese media on Friday Mahmoud Abdel Aal, one of the three suspects who was released earlier this week, said: 'We were free even when we were behind bars.' However, he denied any kind of 'a certain deal' that led to his release. 'We were innocent since we were abducted,' he added.