April 11, 2009 - Daily Star - Head of Tribunal defense team to arrive in Beirut - media report

BEIRUT: The head of the international tribunal's defense team and the court's defense coordinator are expected to arrive in Beirut Monday for contacts with the attorneys representing those detained in the assassination case of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.
The report added that the team would also offer logistical assistance if needed.
Judicial officials have ruled out making a decision on releasing the four former Lebanese generals who are still in custody here or extending their detention, the report said.
Al-Akhbar added that the tribunal's prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, was also likely to pay a visit to Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Lebanon handed over a list of those detained over the 2005 murder of Hariri, The Hague-based court said Wednesday.
"The list of names has been received by the pre-trial judge. He will deliver them to the prosecutor," tribunal spokeswoman Susan Khan told AFP.
Other boxes with papers and evidence, which were still awaited "will be transmitted directly to the office of the prosecutor," Khan said.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which began work on March 1, has called for any detainees to be held until a decision on whether they will be transferred to the UN court is made.
But a Lebanese investigating judge lifted Wednesday arrest warrants against four high-ranking generals jailed since 2005 in connection with Hariri's murder, a judicial official told AFP.
A lawyer for one of the four detainees, Akram Azouri, welcomed the decision, saying it augured well for his client.
"This means that the generals no longer stand accused or can be considered under arrest," he told AFP.
"They are now simply detained and the judge's ruling put an end to the case between us the Lebanese judiciary." He added that he expects the special tribunal to order the release of his client and the three other generals in coming days.
Three civilians suspected of withholding information and misleading the ongoing probe were recently freed on bail.
The attack in Beirut that killed Hariri was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since its 1975-1990 Civil War. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon was created by a United Nations Security Council resolution in 2007. It has an initial, renewable, three-year mandate and 11 judges, four of them Lebanese. -