STL President: Fate of Four Officers to be Decided by May

 
Source: Al-Manar TV, 26-3-2009

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's case, Antonio Cassasse, declared on Wednesday that "the fate of the four detained generals over the case will be decided in May, either they are released or charged."

Speaking to the Italian daily La Republica on Wednesday, Cassesse said that nothing would affect the tribunal's work. "Beginning today, we shall begin working with the first issue, that is the four Lebanese generals who were former security and intelligence directors," he announced.

The four officers are: Jamil Sayyed of the Surete Generale, Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guard Brigade, Raymond Azar of the army's Intelligence Service and Ali Hajj of the Internal Security Forces. They have been arbitrarily detained without charges since 2005, upon the recommendation of former UN investigator Detlev Mehlis, based on the fabricated testimonies of false witnesses.