Lebanese authorities release three suspects in the Hariri case

Feb 25, 2009, 11:31 GMT

Beirut - Lebanese judicial authorities on Wednesday released three of the seven people held over the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, a judicial source said.

The three have been identified as brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed Abdel Aal from Lebanon and Ibrahim Jarjura, a Syrian, the source said.

'The three are out of seven who were held in a Lebanese jail since 2005 on suspicion of withholding information on the Hariri case,' the source said without giving further details.

Currently, four former high-ranking security generals are in custody in Lebanon's Central Roumiah jail in connection with Hariri's assassination. They were arrested after a preliminary investigation under Detlev Mehlis, the German former head of the United Nations commission probing Hariri's death.

The generals are former presidential guard chief Mustafa Hamdan, the former head of the general security department, Jamil Sayyed, former internal security forces chief Ali Hajj and the former head of army intelligence Raymond Azar. All were close allies of the Syrian government.

The release of the three suspects came days before the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon was due to convene in The Hague on March 1.

According to an official source, the four former army generals were expected to be handed over to the tribunal.

Hariri was killed in a massive bomb blast along with 20 other people in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

The London-based Al Hayat newspaper quoted Wednesday Mehlis as saying that there was evidence implicating Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in the assassination.

Eleven judges, including four from Lebanon, are to head the tribunal, but their names have been kept secret for security reasons.

Many in Lebanon fear that the launch of the tribunal will cause instability in the country, especially as is gearing up for elections. Parliamentary elections on June 7 expected to amount to a tight race between Lebanon's anti-Syrian coalition government and the opposition led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement.

Syria ended a three-decade occupation of Lebanon in 2005 following Hariri's assassination. Hariri had been an opponent of Syrian meddling in Lebanon.

The assassination was largely blamed on Syrian intelligence and renewed international pressure, led by the United States and France, on Syria to withdraw.