Lawyer urges state to charge security chiefs or let them go

Daily Star - Lawyer urges state to charge security chiefs or let them go, 24 january 2008.

Lawyer Akram Azouri said on Wednesday that the detention of four security chiefs after the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was "arbitrary," and called on the Lebanese authorities to take steps to resolve the issue. "Media reports covering the detention of generals Jamil Sayyed, Ali Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan have confirmed the slimness of their files, labeling their arrest as arbitrary," Azouri said in a news conference. Sayyed, the former head of General Security; Hamdan, the former head of the Presidential Guard; Hajj, the former director of the Internal Security Forces; and Azar, the former head of Military Intelligence, have been kept in custody for more than two years without being charged. "I ask the government to take immediate measures in order to resolve this issue," Azouri said, pointing to a UN report which holds the Lebanese government responsible for the "arbitrary" detention of the four generals. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) report, conducted by a UN team charged with probing illegal arrests, was issued earlier this month. It accused Lebanese authorities of illegally detaining eight people in the Hariri case. The other four detainees are civilians. The report said the Lebanese government must not keep the suspects in custody without pressing charges. The government had defended itself by arguing that the suspects are not under normal arrest, but are subject to provisional detention.
Quoting the UN report, Azouri said the four generals and the other detainees have been under arrest for 29 months upon the request of the Lebanese judiciary. "The Lebanese state and judiciary are responsible for the arbitrary detention of the detainees in Hariri's murder," Azouri quoted the report as saying. "Does the Lebanese state accept to breach international charters, while it had deployed all efforts to establish an international investigation committee? It should not resort to international judiciary whenever it wants and violate international laws whenever it wants." "If those generals are guilty in any way whatsoever, let the Lebanese authorities keep them in custody. Otherwise let them be released," he added.
The lawyers of the four generals have repeatedly complained about the ongoing detention of their clients, arguing that judicial authorities have no right to keep them in custody without pressing charges, especially since Belgian Judge Serge Brammertz, the former head of the UN Hariri probe, had said the committee had finished interrogating them. Azouri's news conference was held in the presence of lawyers Youssef Finianos , Issam Karam and Malek Sayyed as well as representatives of former Prime Minister Salim Hoss, Higher Shiite Council vice president Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan, the Free Patriotic Movement, former Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh and other political parties.