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Lebanon tribunal orders release of generals
Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:32am EDT
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By Aaron Gray-Block and Nadim Ladki
AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Wednesday ordered the release of four pro-Syrian security generals held in Lebanon since 2005 over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
The tribunal, which said the order should take immediate effect, handed down its ruling after the prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, had requested the generals' release.
In Beirut, heavy celebratory gunfire erupted when the international judge announced the decision. Supporters of the generals also fired rifles into the air in their home towns. Well-wishers flocked to their homes in Beirut.
Lebanese authorities have held the four men, who commanded Lebanon's pro-Syrian security establishment at the time of Hariri's death in 2005, without charge for nearly four years.
Lebanon's Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said the four generals would be freed in line with the tribunal's decision. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud said the men would be provided with protection after their release.
The release of the four generals will be seen as a blow to an anti-Syrian political alliance just weeks before a June 7 parliamentary election in which Hezbollah and other allies of Syria hope to overturn their opponents' slim majority.
However, it is unlikely to significantly affect the result. Politicians on both sides expect the poll to be a close contest.
A detente in the last few months between Syria and Saudi Arabia, which supports the anti-Damascus bloc, is likely to help produce a broadly inclusive government after the election.
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
Prosecutor Bellemare said in his filing to the court an assessment of evidence had not proved sufficiently credible to warrant indictments due to inconsistencies in potentially key witness statements and a lack of corroborative evidence.
In handing down the ruling, the presiding judge noted that the prosecutor had therefore indicated he was unable to indict the four generals within the legal timeframe.
"Some witnesses modified their statements and ... a key witness expressly retracted his original statement which incriminated the persons detained," the presiding judge said, referring to the prosecution's reasoning.
It was not immediately clear whether the prosecutor intended to try and indict the generals at a later stage.
Hariri and 22 other people were killed by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Some Lebanese politicians, including his the slain politician's son Saad al-Hariri, have blamed the attack on neighboring Syria.
Syria denied this, but the killing caused a worldwide outcry that forced an end to its 29-year military presence in Lebanon. Continued...
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