Report: Syria Hasn’t Sent Arrest Warrants Against 33 Figures in Hariri Probe
Informed sources have denied that Syria has sent to Lebanon for the second time arrest warrants against 33 Lebanese personalities in the lawsuit filed by former head of Lebanon’s General Security Department Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed.
The sources told al-Mustaqbal daily published Tuesday that Syria only sent a detailed document on the identities of the 33 figures. They include judges, security officers, politicians, journalists and other Lebanese, Arab and foreign officials and individuals.
“Interpol does not accept such correspondence because it contradicts with its by-laws,” they said, denying that Lebanese Interpol received the warrants.
Syria issued the arrest warrants last year after Sayyed filed a lawsuit against the 33 people for making false accusations against him in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination case.
Sayyed in his complaint alleged the U.N. probe into Hariri’s murder was based on fabricated testimony aimed at implicating Syria and its supporters in Lebanon in the former premier’s killing.
He was one of four security generals who served four years in prison on suspicion of involvement in the murder. All four were released in 2009 for lack of evidence.
Among those named in the warrants is Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor who led the early stages of the U.N. investigation into Hariri's assassination.
The Lebanese defendants include the head of the Internal Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, MP Marwan Hamadeh, General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and former Justice Minister Charles Rizk.
Syria's former vice president, Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has joined the opposition and is now living in exile in France, is also a defendant.
over 13 years
They should worry about covering their a.s before the STL strip them naked! Watch also for the Turks rolling from the north. You will soon be running for cover you bastards!
over 13 years
A failed regime such as the Assad regime is issuing arrest warrants.....! How ironic, sad, and funny at the same time. Wlak they have no shame, no morals, NOTHING. Notice how they issue "arrest warrants" without trial. At least call them witnesses, call them accused, ask them to testify..... wlak shu arrest warrants????
over 13 years
As though any correspondence issued by the Syrian regime had any credibility on the World stage.
This being said, it is fascinating that Jamil Al Sayyed's lawsuit is based in Syria while the offenses that he claims were committed against his person were committed in Lebanon.
Since when is Syria, a country on equal footing with North Korea and 1970's Cambodia as the most repressive and dictatorial regime on the planet, a place where the oppressed of the Earth can find a compassionate judicial institution? Syrian people get shot and tortured for simply protesting against their condition.
If you want justice Mr. Al Sayyed, and you don't trust the Lebanese judicial system (which is your God-given right), then sue your offenders in Belgium or in the Netherlands, where both credibility and fairness are ensured.
over 13 years
First of all, "arrest warrants" usually are not issued as the result of a lawsuit. Lawsuits are civil proceedings for which summons are issued, but not to arrest anyone.
Second, the writ of the Assad government has about as much force, at this point in time as a writ issued by the Confederate States of America in April 1865 weeks before the government collapsed.
Mr.Jamil Sayed is riding a dead pony.
Simple advice .... keep them coz soon you will be receiving your own arrest warrant....