June 29, 2010 - Now Lebanon - Sayyed to challenge STL over past detention at public hearing

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) said Tuesday it will hold a public hearing to allow Brigadier General Jamil as-Sayyed to challenge the court over his detention for alleged involvement in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Sayyed was the chief of General Security at the time of Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

Sayyed filed a request in March for access to court investigation files in order to prove the claim he was the victim of slander and arbitrarily detained from 2005 to 2009.

The public hearing is scheduled for July 13. Sayyed and the prosecutor will each have 20 minutes to present their arguments to the court, said STL pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen in a ruling dated June 25.

The former General Security chief was placed in temporary detention on August 30, 2005 on an arrest warrant issued by a Lebanese judge.

The STL ordered his release along with three other generals on April 29, 2009.

The tribunal was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to find and try suspects involved in Hariri’s murder.

In its first annual report published in March, the STL announced investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.

-AFP/NOW Lebanon