Now Lebanon - Arrest warrant possible if Sayyed does not respond to summons, source says - September 20, 2010

The judiciary will not revoke its summons of former General Security chief Jamil as-Sayyed and his summons will become an arrest warrant if he does not respond, MTV quoted an anonymous judicial source as saying on Sunday.

In a statement issued on Friday, Hezbollah called on the judiciary to revoke Attorney General Judge Said Mirza’s decision to summon Sayyed for questioning after Sayyed said on September 12 that “[Prime Minister Saad Hariri] should take a lie detector test to prove he did not support or fund false witnesses in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).” The former General Security chief also threatened to take his right “with his own hands” if Hariri did not give it to him.

AFP reported that Sayyed was accompanied from the airport by armed Hezbollah bodyguards when he returned to Beirut on Saturday after a short visit to France.

Sayyed has argued that Mirza is not legally qualified to take judicial action against him because Mirza is one of several Lebanese and Syrian public figures named as defendants in a lawsuit Sayyed filed in Damascus in December 2009.

MTV also quoted an anonymous source close to Prime Minister Saad Hariri saying that the premier will not “evade confrontation if it is imposed upon him… or accept additional nails in the state’s coffin.”

-NOW Lebanon