[Khaleej Times] The powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah on Friday attacked an international investigation into the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, describing its work as politicised and dishonest.Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Islamist movement, said in a televised address that this week's release of four Lebanese generals held since August 2005 in connection with the killing was "conclusive proof" that the international investigation had been unfair.
The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday ordered the release of the four generals seen as pillars of a Lebanese state dominated by neighbouring Syria at the time of the killing.
The generals were among a number of Syrian and Lebanese officials implicated in a preliminary report by the international investigation. The head of the inquiry at the time, Detlev Mehlis, requested their detention.
Syria has always denied any involvement in the assassination, which led to its military withdrawal from Lebanon. The generals always said they were innocent.
The prosecutor said in his filing to the court on Wednesday that 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. [ID: nLT208083]
"After four years, the truth of the falsification and politicisation of the work of the international investigation commission has become clear," said Nasrallah, a close ally of Syria whose group backed the generals' campaign for freedom.
"Today, I hope that nobody will ask us in advance to accept anything from the prosecutor, or the international investigation, or the judges of the tribunal simply because it issued a correct decision two days ago," he added.