October 2, 2009 - Daily Star - Jamil al-Sayyed responds to an article in The Daily Star

Editor’s note: The following is a response by former General Jamil al-Sayyed to an article written by Chibli Mallat, editor of The Daily Star’s law page, and published on September 17, 2009, in The Daily Star with the headline “The failures of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are lessons to be learned.” Sayyed was freed in May this year by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon after almost four years of incarceration for suspicion of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

With all due thanks to Mr. Mallat for considering in his article that the four generals possess the right to explain and receive compensation for their false political arrest (an arrest
that lasted for approximately four years and was without legal motifs), it is essential
to respond to Mr. Mallat’s slander. Mr. Mallat is a professor at Lebanese and
American universities,
and he is an international criminal attorney.
Therefore, he should not allow himself, according to professional standards, to accuse people without any proof or evidence except that which he has read in newspapers during the political arrest of Mr. Sayyed. Mr. Mallat also does not have the right to use such proof in a newspaper article that he signed as an attorney and a university professor.
First: Mr. Mallat mentions in his article that “Major General al-Sayyed brazenly shadowed journalist Samir Kassir for weeks on end just because of Kassir’s courageous criticism of the police state Sayyed was putting
in place …”
Mr. Sayyed asks Mr. Mallat to look at the investigation reports of the Independent International Investigation Committee and of the Lebanese judiciary in order to assure himself and to assure others that the patrols that followed Samir Kassir in 2001 did not belong to the General Security nor to Major General Sayyed;
they instead belonged to
the intelligence department
of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).
It is to be noted, however, that the General Security took an administrative and legal measure at the time. They examined Samir
Kassir’s passport. Kassir
was born of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother, and his passport was registered at the town of Hermel in the Bekaa. The General Security’s measure was public and was officially announced in the media at the mentioned time.
Second: As for Mr. Mallat’s words, “Jamil Sayyed, who oversaw one of the worst moments for Lebanese civil liberties in recent history …,” Mr. Sayyed asks Mr. Mallat to have enough courage to present him with detailed evidence of his actions, as well as the actions of his institutions. He also asks him that the defendants seek Mr. Mallat’s representation in filing a lawsuit against Mr. Sayyed.
Mr. Mallat knows that even though arguments occurred between the General Security and the media, no journalist was hit, murdered, arrested or kidnapped by Mr. Sayyed, the General Security or the police state, noting that Samir Kassir, Gebran Tueni, May Chidiac and others were murdered after Sayyed left his position and after the police state
was placed under the hands of the militias and the money of Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt, Samir Geagea
and others.
Sayyed’s history shows how he rebuilt the General Security after it had been in the hands of militias. It also shows how he made the
General Security one of Lebanon’s and the Middle East’s finest institutions. The United Nations, the Council of Maronite Bishops and the Lebanese people can all confirm to this.
What is demanded of Mr. Mallat is a little respect, seeing how he writes about his admiration for the current government; a government of false witnesses, freedom, sovereignty and independence.