A former Lebanese army general Tuesday asked an international court to release his secret case file in the 2005 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri to learn why he was jailed for nearly four years without charge.
The hearing by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is the first since Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, the former chief of general security, and three other pro-Syrian army officers were freed from a Lebanese jail for lack of evidence in April 2009.
The hearing, the first to be attended by reporters, will revive attention to a case that has been languishing. No other suspects are in custody and prosecutors decline to say how their investigation is progressing.
The four officers were detained two months after Hariri and 22 others died in a massive truck bomb explosion in Beirut, and suspicion fell on Syria and its Lebanese allies. Hariri, a billionaire businessman credited with rebuilding Lebanon after its 15-year civil war, had been trying to limit Syria's domination of Lebanon in the months before his assassination.
Since the release, investigators have interviewed members of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah, possibly exploring any link to broader Middle East rivalries. Hariri, a Sunni, was close to Saudi Arabia.
Both Syria and Hezbollah have denied involvement.
By: Brant
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