UN: Decision to Free Detained Officers Purely Lebanese

 
Source: Al-Manar TV, 15-12-2008
Once again, the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri declared that the fate of the four officers detained over the case was absolutely in the hands of the Lebanese justice. Once again, the United Nations confirmed that the decision to free the mentioned officials was purely Lebanese, a "formula" that has been repeated multiple times in the few past years, perhaps with every report the IIIC establishes.
The former head of the general security department General Jamil Sayyed, the former presidential guard chief Mustafa Hamdan, the former head of the internal security forces Ali Hajj and the former chief of army intelligence Raymond Azar are the four officers who have been in custody without charges since the 2005 assassination of Hariri in a massive Beirut car bombing.
Around four years have passed and no charges have been delivered to them. Yet, the Lebanese justice refuses to free them, and rejects recurrent UN affirmations of its suitability to make the verdict.
On Monday, the IIIC spokeswoman, Radia Ashouri, told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar that the commission's head, Judge Daniel Bellemare, was more than clear when he stated that the fate of the detained officers was the Lebanese justice responsibility. She explained that the international commission has submitted all the information it had to the Lebanese side, stressing that the latter does not need to return to the IIIC in order to make its verdict in this case.
But the Lebanese justice sector doesn't seem set for such a courageous and brave step. In this context, a judiciary source told Al-Akhbar that the authority of deciding the fate of the detained persons wouldn't be in Lebanon's hands after March 1, the set date for the launching of the International Tribunal. The source noted that Lebanon would hand the officers over to Bellemare on March 1. "The international tribunal wouldn't be able to refuse receiving them," the source noted, adding that following March 1, there would be judges in the tribunal who would be able to settle any issue concerning the investigation, including maintaining the detention or even releasing already detained people.
JAMIL SAYYED ON A 24-HOUR HUNGER STRIKE
Meanwhile, Major General Jamil Sayyed announced that he would begin a 24-hour hunger strike on Monday.
In a statement distributed by his media office on Sunday, Sayyed said his planned protest was against "arbitrariness made against him and the other arrested Generals for deliberately hiding the offered opinion of Bellemare for settling the issue of the arrests based on the investigative findings that would secure their release."
Sayyed indicated that his symbolic action is a prelude to an open hunger strike in the future. The statement emphasized that the IIIC had formally informed Lebanese authorities that it has delivered all related material regarding the four arrested officers, leaving the decision of their release in the hands of the Lebanese authorities.