iloubnan - STL General to challenge UN Hariri court in public hearing

General to challenge UN Hariri court in public hearing
BEIRUT | AFP - June 30, 2010
A UN tribunal probing the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri said Tuesday it will hold a public hearing to allow a general who was detained over the killing to challenge the court.
Lebanese General Jamil el-Sayed filed a request in March for access to court investigation files in order to prove his assertion that he had been the victim of slander and was arbitrarily detained from 2005 to 2009.

Sayed and the prosecutor will each have 20 minutes in the hearing on July 13 to present their arguments to the court, said judge Daniel Fransen in a ruling dated June 25. The Lebanese general was placed in temporary detention on August 30, 2005 on an arrest warrant issued by a Lebanese judge.

The UN tribunal ordered his release along with three other generals on April 29, 2009. The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to find and try suspects in the assassination of Hariri, a five-time billionaire prime minister who was killed in a massive bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.

In its first annual report published in March, the tribunal announced investigators were getting closer to identifying the suicide bomber who carried out the attack.The Hariri murder has been widely blamed on Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah, although Damascus has roundly denied involvement.

A UN commission of inquiry had said it had evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services prior to the tribunal's formation, but there are currently no suspects in custody. The head of the UN tribunal said last month that it could file charges by the end of the year.