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.
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