 Chief Lebanese Investigating Magistrate Elias Eid refused on Tuesday to release two former security chiefs awaiting trial for their possible role in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Naji Boustani, the defense attorney of both Mustapha Hamdan and Raymond Azar, filed a motion on Saturday for his clients' release on grounds they were being detained on "suspicions and not hard evidence."
| Sounds like a routine motion, routinely rejected... |
Hamdan is the former head of the Presidential Guards, while Azar formerly ran the country's Military Intelligence department. The two officials were officially charged on September 3, along with two other former generals, with "murder, attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act."
| I think there'd have been a fair amount of hell to pay had they been sprung. Time enough for the lawyers to muddy the waters... |
Eid also refused to release Mahmoud Abdel-Al, a senior official in the Islamic Al-Ahbash organization. Lead UN investigator Detlev Mehlis linked Abdel-Al to suspicious phone calls made shortly before and after Hariri's murder. Mehlis is due to arrive in Beirut by Wednesday night after a short vacation in Berlin. |