President Sleiman: Officers release means international tribunal has taken off

Saad Hariri says release shows tribunal not politically-motivated, tribunal to detect culprits of PM assassination

Bellemare says investigations are wider, continuous

Lebanon released four generals held for nearly four years in the 2005 truck-bomb assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri after a U.N.-backed tribunal ordered them freed on Wednesday, setting off celebrations with fireworks and dancing.

One of the officers was cheered by a crowd of hundreds outside his house and another was hoisted onto the shoulders of family and friends and showered by rose petals as supporters danced and blew whistles.

Their release from a Beirut prison left the international tribunal in the Netherlands with no suspects in custody after a four-year U.N. investigation into an assassination that triggered enormous political and sectarian turmoil in one of the Middle East's most volatile countries.

The tribunal's decision — after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to justify their continued detention — could also have an immediate political impact. Lebanon is heading into a crucial parliamentary election on June 7 that pits a pro-Western faction headed by Hariri's son Saad against an opposition dominated by the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah.

Saad Hariri's faction is struggling to hold onto its legislative majority. The opposition, which took up the cause of the four generals, could get a boost from their release.

The generals had been held since August 2005 for suspected involvement in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February of that year.

Former General Security chief Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, the first of the generals to appear in public after their release, spoke to hundreds of cheering supporters outside his house.

He lashed out at authorities for what he called their "political detention," but said he does not seek revenge.

"Never since independence have we had such a conspiracy of this scale ... officers being imprisoned for four years without evidence or charge," al-Sayyed said, his voice rising as he spoke in front of a banner with a picture of the four generals.

Tribunal judge Daniel Fransen demanded that Lebanese authorities protect the generals after he ordered their unconditional release and said they should no longer be considered suspects.

Fransen said a key witness had retracted a statement that initially incriminated the generals, undermining the case against them.

Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said in court he would not appeal. He said in a written submission this week that the "evidence available to him currently is not sufficiently credible" to keep detaining the four generals.

So far, Bellemare has not indicted anyone and has not identified any other suspects in the suicide bombing.

Hariri's son said he accepted the tribunal's decision.

"It a step in the course of justice," he told a news conference. "Many people won't like this. We must respect the law. Any decision taken we will accept."

"I don't feel any disappointment with the decision or concern about the fate of the tribunal," Hariri said, dismissing concern that the move could spell the end of the process.

His father's assassination sparked mass protests that forced Syria's army out of the country after about three decades of political and military domination by Lebanon's neighbor. As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence in the last months before his assassination.

Many blamed Syria for his killing — an accusation that Syria denies.

Taking up the cause of the jailed generals, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had opposed their detention without charges.

"It is a joyful day for the Lebanese people and a day of mourning for Lebanese judiciary," Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah said.

Fireworks and scattered celebratory gunfire erupted across Beirut after the tribunal announced its decision at a televised news conference.

The other three generals are: Ali al-Hajj, the ex-Internal Security Forces director general; Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former military intelligence chief; and the former Presidential Guards commander, Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan.

"We consider today the beginning of finding out the truth about who killed the martyr Rafik Hariri," al-Hajj said.

His wife, Samar, said, "I'm too numb, too happy," as supporters and relatives distributed sweets and danced outside their home to the beat of drums.

A general freed after nearly four years in jail in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said Thursday his release by a U.N.-backed tribunal discredited Lebanon's judiciary and could shift the country's fragile political balance.

Brig. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, one of the former Lebanese security officials the tribunal ordered released on Wednesday citing insufficient evidence, called for the resignation of senior Lebanese judges.

"Inevitably, there will be political consequences," al-Sayyed told The Associated Press in an interview. "It was only natural that when the tribunal took a decision that goes against the politically motivated detention, there would be an opposite political impact."

The tribunal's decision was a setback for Lebanon's pro-Western political bloc headed by Hariri's son Saad. Senior judiciary officials who were in charge of the generals' case are considered by many to be close to Saad Hariri and his alliance. The bloc, which holds a majority in parliament, was struggling to contain the political damage heading into crucial elections in June against a Hezbollah-led faction.

Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group backed by Syria and Iran, is seeking to wrest the majority away from the U.S.-backed camp in what is expected to be a close contest. And the group was looking to cash in on the release after taking up the cause of the jailed officers.

Hariri was killed along with 22 others in a massive 2005 truck bombing on a Beirut street. The billionaire businessman and longtime ally of Syria was quietly challenging Damascus' three decades of domination over Lebanon at the time of his assassination and his killing sparked a domestic and international outcry that forced Syria and its tens of thousands of troops out of the country.

Hariri's supporters blamed Syria for the killing, a charge Damascus denies. The four released by the special international tribunal set up to find out who was behind Hariri's killing were the only suspects in custody.

Al-Sayyed was considered Syria's strongman in Lebanon.

He and the other three freed generals — Ali al-Hajj, Raymond Azar and Mustafa Hamdan — directed the chief security and military intelligence services and the presidential guard. They were instrumental in implementing Syrian policy in Lebanon in the years before the Syrian army was forced to withdraw.

Their arrest nearly four years ago was a condemnation of Syria and its allies in Lebanon, so their release is likely to boost the pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

Al-Sayyed was receiving well-wishers at a hotel as Lebanon was coming to grips with the new political reality after the release of the generals.

"What happened yesterday amounts to the downfall of the Lebanese judiciary at the hands of the international justice," he said. He said he would consider himself compensated "if the judges who erred, the officers and the journalists who fed the false witnesses with information, resign as a result of the court's decision."

He said he would wait for their resignation or dismissal, but if that does not happen, he and the others may eventually bring a lawsuit against those responsible for his detention.

"I do not seek revenge. ... But at the same time, I like accountability," he said.

The tribunal was imposed on Lebanon by the U.N. Security Council after deep divisions prevented parliament from ratifying its formation. The majority supported it as a way to limit Syria's influence and end a series of political assassinations that followed Hariri's. But the minority, particularly Hezbollah, saw it as a Western tool to pressure it and ally Damascus.

The generals were arrested after the first U.N. investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of the assassination plot suggested a role by Syrian intelligence services and its pro-Syria Lebanese counterpart. An early draft of a report he issued in 2005 linked Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle but the two investigators who succeeded him did not repeat the accusations and said Syria was cooperating.

Hezbollah, branded a terrorist group by the United States, wasted no time in capitalizing on the release. Its officials flanked the freed generals Wednesday as supporters set off fireworks and danced.

"The priority is to hold accountable those responsible for the years of deception and stalling," a Hezbollah statement said.

Saad Hariri's political ally Walid Jumblatt, an outspoken critic of Syria, sought to rally supporters ahead of the elections.

"We will win the elections for the sake of justice and for the sake of Rafik Hariri," he told reporters Thursday. He said he accepts the court's decision but "we will not drop the political accusations" against Syria.

The impact of Wednesday's release of the four generals from detention could range from being the deciding factor in June's parliamentary elections to having a negligible effect on the vote, a number of analysts told The Daily Star.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of the four former security chiefs, who had been arrested in August 2005 on the recommendation of the then-chief of the UN team investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri's killing sparked a wave of mass protests that led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence in Lebanon, and the March 14 political camp born during those demonstrations was partly founded on the principle of bringing Hariri's killers to justice.

However, the generals' continuing incarceration without being charged became a cause celebre for the Hezbollah-led March 8 political camp, and the liberation of the four could tip the tight June 7 general elections in March 8's favor, said Hilal Khashan, head of the department of political studies and public administration at the American University of Beirut.

"The results of the elections will change," Khashan said.

"The Hezbollah-led opposition will have a majority in the Parliament. What happened today was dramatic."

The March 14 Forces had also based much of its political stance on opposition to Syria, which many March 14 leaders blamed for Hariri's assassination, and the four former security chiefs were perceived in this light as collaborators with Damascus - a view upended by the tribunal's decision, Khashan added.

"Their whole argument has been shattered now," he said. "Today's decision ... will reflect positively on Hezbollah and the [March 8] opposition."

Observers have long said the June vote would come down to Christian majority districts, and Wednesday's ruling provides a perfect opening for the March 8 coalition's top Christian leader, Free Patriotic Movement head MP Michel Aoun, to defend his partnership with Hezbollah and push his anti-corruption agenda, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at Notre Dame University.

Aoun "will start to attack the judicial system and try to attack the corruption," Hanna added. "It's going to hurt March 14 ... especially the Christians. This is something deeply damaging."

From another point of view, however, the generals' release represents merely an initial legal step - the generals could still be indicted or called as witnesses - and neither exonerates or implicates Syria in Hariri's killing; from this perspective, Wednesday's order will not score political points for either faction, said Amr Hamzawy, senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

"The decision to release the four officers cannot be put simply as a victory for one side over the other side," Hamzawy said. "It's not a statement on the innocence of the officers. It's a technical issue."

Lebanon's rival political camps will doubtlessly try to exploit the issue for political gain, but with the political landscape deeply divided for years between the March 14 and March 8 camps, the generals' going free will likely not budge anyone from one camp to another, Hamzawy added.

"It's not creating a new component," he said. "It's but one [element] in the polarization we are seeing.

"It will not have such a great impact," he said.

With the generals' release largely expected, the agreement made at Tuesday's national dialogue session to maintain a calm atmosphere during the election campaign also looks like a signal that feuding politicians will not exaggerate the generals' release for political gain, said Oussama Safa, executive director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.

Politicians will not take the freed officers on campaign road shows, and the issue will fade as the parliamentary elections approach, Safa added.

"They'll probably use it, but it won't be taken to extremes," he said, adding that he believed the generals would not take active political roles immediately.

"It's not going to give comparative advantage. It's not going to remain a very sore issue until the eve of the elections," Safa said.

While Wednesday's order shoves the tribunal back into the political spotlight in Lebanon, the decision paradoxically demonstrates the court's determination to keep politics out of the Hariri case and to rely only on judicial standards in its decision-making, Hamzawy said.

"It's trying to take out the politicization of the past years," Hamzawy added. "It confirms that the tribunal is committed to very high standards of justice. It's definitely a first positive step."

By issuing the order to set the generals free relatively quickly after receiving all Hariri materials form the Lebanese judiciary, the tribunal has only strengthened its legitimacy, Safa said.

"The releasing of the four officers reinforces the credibility of the court," Safa added. "They're acting in an objective manner and not in a political way."

The Lebanese judiciary, meanwhile, can expect a backlash for holding the four officers for three-and-a-half years when the tribunal did not see sufficient evidence to continue holding the four, pointed out Fadia Kiwan, director of the school of political science at St. Joseph University.

"Many questions are being raised today about the reason these people have been arrested for such a long time," she said. "It's weakening the position of the state."