Court of Appeals to poll views on bid to replace judge in Hariri case

Daily Star, Court of Appeals to poll views on bid to replace judge in Hariri case, July 3, 2007.

BEIRUT: The Court of Appeals is expected to circulate a submitted request to replace the chief of Lebanese investigations into the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to all parties involved with the case, so that the court can arrive at a final decision on the issue of replacement more promptly, a judicial report said on Monday.
Magistrate Elias Eid was expected to issue a final response to the request on Monday - either by rejecting it or by stepping down - but the final decision on the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals.
Mohammad Mattar, the lawyer for the heirs of four Hariri bodyguards killed in the bombing, filed a request last Wednesday that Eid be replaced, citing Eid's alleged "intention" to release former security officials Raymond Azar and Jamil Sayyed before the conclusion of the investigation.
Mattar also pointed to Eid's "overly friendly relations" with the lawyers and families of the four officers (Sayyed, Azar, Ali al-Hajj and Mustafa Hamdan) charged with involvement in the assassination.
On Monday, attorney Mohammad Haidar from Mattar's office said he was surprised how detained former head of General Security Jamil Sayyed was "so knowledgeable" about the content of "supposedly top secret talks" between chief of the probe committee into the Hariri assassination Serge Brammertz, State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and Eid.
Sayyed, in a statement issued through the office of his attorney Akram Azoury on Sunday, expressed surprise that he was kept in confinement after the UN probe committee "has ... five times ... officially declared that the arrest of the four former security generals falls strictly within the responsibilities of the Lebanese judiciary and that the committee was not to be held responsible for it."