Daily Star - Beirut defends detention of former security chiefs over Hariri slaying, 15 April 2008
The Lebanese government sent a letter on Monday to the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) defending the detention of four former security chiefs on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"The detention of the four former security chiefs and four other people is in conformity with Lebanese and international laws," the letter said.
Generals Jamil al-Sayyed of General Security, Ali al-Hajj of the Internal Security Forces, Raymond Azar of Army Intelligence and Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guard have been detained without charges since 2005 for alleged involvement in the February 2005 assassination of Hariri.
Four other men have also been detained for two-and-a-half years for similar reasons.
The government's letter said that Investigating Magistrate Saqr Saqr's decision to hold the seven detainees in custody "was in line with articles 108 and 363 of the Lebanese penal code."
"Articles 108 and 363 are clear and stipulate that the period of reserve detention is unlimited if the case has been assigned to the Judicial Council and if the crime reflects on state security," the letter to the OHCHR said.
It said the investigating magistrate chose to keep the seven detainees in confinement, "to protect their lives and prevent them from seeking refuge in another country, which is likely to have detrimental effects on the overall investigation."
"The investigating magistrate sees that the detention is still necessary as long as the international probe committee and the Lebanese judiciary have not concluded investigations," the letter added.
In a detailed memorandum sent to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Sayyed urged the UN to clarify the ambiguity surrounding his detention in order to have decisions made by the Lebanese judiciary be in line with those of the UN probe committee.
"The faulty recommendation to arrest General Sayyed that [former head of the probe committee] Detlev Mehlis issued in 2005, the content of which was made de facto null and void by his successor Serge Brammertz, who was unable to overrule it properly speaking, has become the main means allowing Lebanese authorities to maintain the current arbitrary and political detention," Sayyed said.
"It is unacceptable that an arbitrary, political detention be maintained for two-and-a-half years because the responsibility for my release is constantly being thrown back and forth between the UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) and the Lebanese judicial authorities," Sayyed said in his letter.
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