September 4, 2009 - Daily Star - Ex-generals launch fresh attacks on Hariri, judiciary

By Patrick Galey
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Two former Lebanese generals detained for four years in the investigation into the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri launched a scathing attack on Thursday against some of the country’s most senior political and judicial figures. Former head of General Security Jamil al-Sayyed issued a statement criticizing what he alleged to be Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s “downplaying of the case of false witnesses” in the ongoing Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
He also attacked Hariri’s “stupid MPs from his block,” who Sayyed claimed “defend some of the judges and officers” charged with investigation the tribunal’s false witnesses.
Sayyed’s fellow detainee, former head of the ISF Ali al-Hajj, followed suit on Thursday with his own withering assessment on the way the judiciary has handled the case.
“The judiciary has not fulfilled its duties since 2005. [It] has been involved in all the inaccuracies related to the investigation into the Hariri murder,” he told Al-Manar television.
“The judiciary remaining silent on all the allegations made against it is a sign that the judiciary admits [they are true],” he said.
Future Movement sources were not immediately available to comment on either of the generals’ allegations.
However, a March 14 source, who has dealt extensively with the STL, told The Daily Star Thursday: “We have decided not to comment at all on this. [Sayyed and others] have been stressing this for a long time.”
Sayyed and Hajj were detained without trial – along with two other former security chiefs – before their release in April this year, after the STL prosecution found that incriminating evidence given by witnesses had been falsified.
The trial has come under heavy criticism for its handling of witnesses who are known to have falsely testified, including Mohammad Zuheir al-Siddiq, Hossam Hossam and Ibrahim Jajoura.
Spokeswoman for the STL’s prosecution office, Radhia Ashouri, told reporters in July that the men were no longer of interest for chief prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.
Sayyed plunged the STL back into the media glare after he accused Hariri on Sunday of faking evidence in his father’s assassination investigation.
Lebanon’s leading judiciary body, the Higher Judicial Council, met on Tuesday and condemned Sayyed’s attacks, saying they aimed “to destabilize the society’s trust in the judiciary.”
Sayyed also called the integrity of senior judicial figures into question. He said Hariri, rather than defending the men, “should have ordered that the [State Prosecutor] Sayyed Mirza and [Investigative Magistrate] Saqr Saqr be subject to judicial inspection.”
Criticism of Sayyed’s recent outbursts has been comparatively restrained. However, Future Movement MP Nuhad al-Mashnouq described the former Security Chief as a “peacock” and suggested Sayyed’s Sunday news conference may have been “Syria’s way of delivering a message to Prime Minister Hariri.”
Sayyed refused to respond on Thursday to any of Mashnouq’s claims.
Responsibility for Hariri’s assassination has been laid by many on Damascus, although Syria has denied involvement.
Sayyed’s fierce attack named several individuals who he said should be dealt with by judicial authorities for the way the investigation and, in particular, the problem of false witnesses had been handled.
“Mirza, Saqr [Internal Security Forces Head of Intelligence] Wissam al-Hassan and journalists Fares Kashan and Hani Hammoud and others involved in the plot of false witnesses [should] be sacked and imprisoned,” said Sayyed.
Fellow detainee Hajj accused the STL of being “extremely politicized,” – an allegation repeatedly denied by judicial and political figures.
When contacted by The Daily Star, the office of Mr Mirza said he “could not give any comments about this case, ever.”
Sayyed’s statement concluded by saying that the judiciary reaching a decision over false witnesses was in the country’s best interest.
“It is the right of the Lebanese, of Rafik Hariri, of the four former security chiefs and their families that the truth be uncovered with respect to the false witnesses’ case,” he said.