Despite the decision on Wednesday by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) to release four suspects in the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, his son and head of the Lebanese Future Movement political party, Sa’ad Al-Hariri, characterized the news as a step towards justice, the Daily Star Lebanon reported.
The STL was established by the United Nations in December 2005 after the government of Lebanon asked the U.N. to establish an international tribunal to try all those allegedly responsible for the attack on February 14, 2005 in Beirut that killed Al-Hariri and 22 others.
“I welcome any decision by the STL in Rafiq Al-Hariri’s case and the other cases, Sa’ad Al-Hariri was quoted as saying by the paper, adding that he would never doubt a decision issued by the tribunal.
As the four men were released, fireworks and gunfire was reportedly heard across Beirut as cheering supporters of the suspects gathered outside the prison to shower the men with flowers.
The four suspects are former Lebanese Armed Forces intelligence chief Raymond ‘Azar, Mu’stafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guard, Internal Security Forces director ‘Ali Al-Hajj and General Security director Jamil A-Sayyid.
The decision was taken by Judge Daniel Fransen after STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare on Monday submitted a report which announced that there was insufficient evidence to detain the men any longer.
Fransen was quoted by international news agencies as saying that based on Bellemare’s recommendation and the fact that these persons were presumed innocent, there was no need to keep them in detention at this point in the proceedings.
The call by the Lebanese government for the establishment of the STL was part of the protest that swept the country following Al-Hariri’s murder.
Additional demands included the withdrawal of the 14,000 Syrian soldiers and intelligence officers who had entered Lebanon during the civil war that ravaged the country from 1975 to 1990. The Syrian army originally entered with a much larger force under the pretext of establishing order in its war-torn neighbor.
All four suspects were part of the pro-Syrian security institutions at the time of the assassination. Much of the international community pointed to Syria following the killing as Al-Hariri was leaning towards the West and trying to break the Syrian hold over its neighbor.
Following the release, there are now no suspects held in detention, since the release of three civilian suspects in February.
One suspect, Muhammad Zuheir ‘Siddiq, who supposedly is a former Syrian intelligence agent. He was arrested in Paris in October 2005 under an international arrest warrant requested by a Lebanese prosecutor and was place in house arrest while the French authorities waited for reassurance that he would not receive the death penalty if found guilty in a Lebanese trial.
In March 2008 Siddiq disappeared from Paris and has not been heard of since, but news reports last week suggest that he might have been arrested in the United Arab Emirates.