Hezbollah demanded on Saturday the freeing of four Lebanese generals who have been held without trial for years in connection with the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Their continued detention "is for political reasons ... given that they have not even been questioned in three years," said a statement from the powerful Shiite movement. "That confirms the arbitrariness of their detention."
| They sound .. unhappy ... |
The statement calls on investigating judge Sakr Sakr to "take the right decision of freeing the four generals as quickly as possible and not give in to political pressures."
On Friday, two days before a UN tribunal into the assassination opens in The Hague, Sakr rejected demands to free the generals for the second time this week. A similar request was rejected on Wednesday on the grounds that the authorities had not completed their investigation, a source close to the case told AFP.
But Sakr on Wednesday did free on bail three other suspects held in connection with Hariri's murder in a February 2005 car bombing.
The generals are the former head of the presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan, security services director Jamil Sayyed, domestic security chief Ali Hajj and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar. They were arrested in August 2005, six months after Hariri's assassination. He was killed along with 22 other people when a massive car bomb exploded as his convoy passed by near the Beirut waterfront.
Their lawyers have repeatedly argued that their detention is "illegal" and "unfounded" and that their clients are being held on false testimony that was later retracted.
| After those who gave were 'persuaded' ... |
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