Release of 4 Generals Ordered by STL Judge

A pre-trial judge of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ordered the release of 4 generals in pre-trial detention. The tribunal was set up to try those who are alleged to be responsible for the February 14, 2005 assasination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others.

The men were released on the request of the Prosecutor, who determined that there was not sufficient evidence to indict the men.

This Reuters article includes reactions to the decision:

"Ordinary people will ask themselves about the state of the evidence that the commission gathered," said Marieke Wierda, a Beirut-based expert on the tribunal at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), a human rights group.

But she said the Hague-based tribunal, which began work only in March, had preserved its credibility by using evidence as the basis for Wednesday's decision to release the four Lebanese former security chiefs for lack of evidence to indict them.

Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor who first headed the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's 2005 killing and originally recommended the generals' detention, was scathing about their release.

"This could send the tribunal into oblivion," he told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

An STL statement is available on its website.