Attorneys press demand for release of ex-generals held in Hariri hit

Source: Daily Star, 04-04-2008
BEIRUT: Attorneys for the four former security chiefs held on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said on Thursday that an international lawsuit was being processed against those responsible for their continuing detention.
"An international lawsuit has been filed against former head of the international probe committee Detlev Mehlis, his aide Gerhard Lehmann, Lebanese State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, and investigative magistrates Elias Eid and Saqr Saqr holding them responsible for the unjustified and continued detention of the four generals," lawyer Malek al-Sayyed told a news conference held to comment on the 10th report issued by the UN International Independent Investigation Commission. Sayyed refused to disclose further details.
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 August 2005.
The UN investigation commission said last week that a "criminal network" had carried out the February 2005 assassination Hariri and was connected to other acts of political violence, but the panel's report did not name any suspects.
Attorneys said their main focus in the next period was to try to "reactivate the judicial aspect of the Hariri case which is currently caught in a vacuum."
"The work of the Lebanese judiciary on the Hariri case has been paralyzed since Investigative Magistrate Elias Eid resigned his post and Magistrate Saqr Saqr took over six months ago," lawyer Akram Azouri, told The Daily Star.
"This technical vacuum is made worse by political pressures exerted by Justice Minister Charles Rizk to influence the judiciary and coerce them to keep the generals in custody," Sayyed's attorney added.
UN Undersecretary General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel and a former head of the international probe committee, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, both said that the continued detention of the former security chiefs was the responsibility of the Lebanese judiciary.