Mehlis: Detention of Lebanon Officers Legal?!?!
Source: Al Manar TV, 19-03-2008
Sometimes a certain political situation necessitates extraordinary trends to prove a point or to accuse, defend and acquit individuals or communities.
What better place for such extraordinary trends other than Lebanon; the country of contradictions?
In Lebanon, Detlev Mehlis, the former chief investigator in the UN International Independent Investigation Commission can show up on TV and speak about an extraordinary international investigation into the assassination of an extraordinary man (Martyr Rafik Hariri) that has not yet ended.
At first sight, the news of an interview with Mehlis on LBC seemed amazing, technically speaking, since investigators and judges are not entitled to make interviews for reasons related to their credibility and the integrity of the probe.
Criminology experts have expressed impersonal reservations based on the principles of realizing justice. "The investigation should be secret and the trial should be public, everything beyond this principle opens the door for skepticism over the credibility of the investigation and the court as well. So, even if this televised interview is viewed as a scoop, however it trespasses the principle of justice," Dr. Omar Neshabeh, a criminology expert, told Al-Manar.
In politics, the interview raised so many questions about its timing, given that it comes on the eve of the first report by current IIIC chief investigator Daniel Bellemare of Canada, who succeeded Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz. The interview also came days before the Arab summit is due to be held in Damascus at the end of the month, the country which Mehlis implicitly accused of having a hand in Hariri's assassination based on statements by controversial witnesses Mohamad Zuheir Siddik and Hussam Hussam.
But most important is that the interview comes as four senior officers are still in custody upon Mehlis' recommendation to Lebanese judicial authorities.
The four former security chiefs - Jamil al-Sayyed of General Security, Ali al-Hajj of the Internal Security Forces, Raymond Azar of army intelligence and Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guards - have been detained since 2005 for alleged involvement in Hariri's killing.
The US State Department released its 2007 report on Human Right in which is described the detention as arbitrary. The UN Human Rights Committee has also called for the release of the four officers. But Mehlis insisted in his interview that their detention is legal. "As an observer, I think their detainment is fully legal," he said.
"We had indications that they were planning to leave the country and most importantly we had indications of their strong involvement in the murder," he said, adding that he had never seen "an official UN recommendation to release the suspects."
According to experts, there are different ways to ban suspects from leaving a country without putting them behind bars without charges including house arrest and confiscating their passports, especially in Lebanon where security in fully in the hands of the ruling bloc that is accused of detaining the officers for political ends.
On the eighth of May 2006, Brammertz told then prosecutor general Said Mirza that he does not have information about the four senior officers other than those handed over to the judicial authorities and asked them in French to decide on the officers according to their conscience (Decidez en votre ame et conscience). Brammertz request prompted the attorneys of the officers to demand their immediate release since no charges have been pressed.
Former General Security Service Jamil al-Sayyed's attorney Akram Azouri said that the aim of the interview was to give Mehlis a chance to justify himself and the arrest of the four officers. "However the justification was very weak because it his decision was based on the testimonies of Siddiq and Hussam."
Azouri added that Mehlis dedicated 25 minutes of the interview to lash out at his predecessor Brammertz and 30 other minutes to clarify that the United Nations did not request his replacement.
Sometimes a certain political situation necessitates extraordinary trends to prove a point or to accuse, defend and acquit individuals or communities.
What better place for such extraordinary trends other than Lebanon; the country of contradictions?
In Lebanon, Detlev Mehlis, the former chief investigator in the UN International Independent Investigation Commission can show up on TV and speak about an extraordinary international investigation into the assassination of an extraordinary man (Martyr Rafik Hariri) that has not yet ended.
At first sight, the news of an interview with Mehlis on LBC seemed amazing, technically speaking, since investigators and judges are not entitled to make interviews for reasons related to their credibility and the integrity of the probe.
Criminology experts have expressed impersonal reservations based on the principles of realizing justice. "The investigation should be secret and the trial should be public, everything beyond this principle opens the door for skepticism over the credibility of the investigation and the court as well. So, even if this televised interview is viewed as a scoop, however it trespasses the principle of justice," Dr. Omar Neshabeh, a criminology expert, told Al-Manar.
In politics, the interview raised so many questions about its timing, given that it comes on the eve of the first report by current IIIC chief investigator Daniel Bellemare of Canada, who succeeded Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz. The interview also came days before the Arab summit is due to be held in Damascus at the end of the month, the country which Mehlis implicitly accused of having a hand in Hariri's assassination based on statements by controversial witnesses Mohamad Zuheir Siddik and Hussam Hussam.
But most important is that the interview comes as four senior officers are still in custody upon Mehlis' recommendation to Lebanese judicial authorities.
The four former security chiefs - Jamil al-Sayyed of General Security, Ali al-Hajj of the Internal Security Forces, Raymond Azar of army intelligence and Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guards - have been detained since 2005 for alleged involvement in Hariri's killing.
The US State Department released its 2007 report on Human Right in which is described the detention as arbitrary. The UN Human Rights Committee has also called for the release of the four officers. But Mehlis insisted in his interview that their detention is legal. "As an observer, I think their detainment is fully legal," he said.
"We had indications that they were planning to leave the country and most importantly we had indications of their strong involvement in the murder," he said, adding that he had never seen "an official UN recommendation to release the suspects."
According to experts, there are different ways to ban suspects from leaving a country without putting them behind bars without charges including house arrest and confiscating their passports, especially in Lebanon where security in fully in the hands of the ruling bloc that is accused of detaining the officers for political ends.
On the eighth of May 2006, Brammertz told then prosecutor general Said Mirza that he does not have information about the four senior officers other than those handed over to the judicial authorities and asked them in French to decide on the officers according to their conscience (Decidez en votre ame et conscience). Brammertz request prompted the attorneys of the officers to demand their immediate release since no charges have been pressed.
Former General Security Service Jamil al-Sayyed's attorney Akram Azouri said that the aim of the interview was to give Mehlis a chance to justify himself and the arrest of the four officers. "However the justification was very weak because it his decision was based on the testimonies of Siddiq and Hussam."
Azouri added that Mehlis dedicated 25 minutes of the interview to lash out at his predecessor Brammertz and 30 other minutes to clarify that the United Nations did not request his replacement.
