Three suspects who spent four years in custody for suspected involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri were released Wednesday, New TV reported.
Mahmoud and Ahmad Abdul Aal and Ibrahim Jarjoura, who were arrested in Sep. 2005 for suspected communications, during the assassination of Hariri. Former chief of the presidential guards Gen. Moustafa Hamdan is still in custody along with three other top security officers, Xinhua reported.
The examiner magistrate rejected today a demand to release the four former generals in custody, who are in addition to Hamdan, former chief of general security Jamil Sayed, former chief of army intelligence Rymond Azar and former chief of internal security Ali Haj.
Meanwhile, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) registrar Robin Vincent said on Tuesday that a request will be submitted to the Lebanese authorities to transfer the four generals to the Hague, and Lebanon has 60 days to transfer all other arrested suspects from Beirut to the Hague where the tribunal is located.
The STL will start functioning on March 1 with an opening ceremony during which international prosecutor Daniel Bellamare will make a statement on progress of the investigation since he was the chief UN investigator in the case until he left Beirut on Monday, after being appointed the international prosecutor.
Former PM Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bomb in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005, popular protests and demonstrations accused Syria and Lebanese security officers who were coordinating with the Syrians to be behind the assassination, Syrian denied the accusation.
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