Four pro-Syrian ex-security chiefs are officially detained and await possible indictment under authority of the probe into Rafik Al-Hariri's assassination, Serene Assir reports Following their detention last week by the Lebanese government, four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals are under formal investigation by the court leading the probe into the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri and 20 other people on 14 February. The issuing of warrants to keep the men in detention led to spontaneous celebrations in Beirut on Saturday, when the initial processes of interrogation had been completed. In other words, the former chief of General Security Major General Jamil Sayed, the former head of the Internal Security Forces Major General Ali Hajj, the former head of military intelligence Brigadier General Raymond Azar and the Presidential Guards Chief Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan went from being alleged suspects brought in purely for the purposes of interrogation to potentially being charged by the Lebanese government following questioning by magistrate Elias Eid. Following initial disputes within the Lebanese government over where to hold the suspects, Hajj is currently in detention at the premises of the Ministry of Interior, where he previously wielded considerable power, the rest being held by military police. On Monday this week, they were set to be granted access to their families and their lawyers. Meanwhile the court that interrogated them until hearings closed on Saturday continues to deliberate over their possible guilt, and whether charges will be brought against them. When the pro-Hariri sector of Lebanese society -- which grew dramatically, along with a sizeable multi- sectarian anti-Syrian movement, following the assassination of the former premier -- heard the news about the four being formally detained, the streets of Beirut and Sidon (Al-Hariri's hometown) were flooded with people in celebration, and who demanded that the search for the truth behind the killing continue. Until just last week, it appeared that the UN-led investigation had been stifled to the degree that no results would appear by the time the team's mandate was due to expire in mid-September. However, last week's detentions and this week's issuing of arrest warrants seem to have reinvigorated the team headed by German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis. On the streets of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, according to The Daily Star, protesters could be seen brandishing signs of "Thank you, Mr Mehlis" and posters of Al-Hariri which read "We miss you". Among those who took to the streets in Sidon was Bahia Al-Hariri MP, the former premier's sister and de facto spokeswoman for the pro-Hariri campaign that emerged in the wake of the Sunni leader's death. For the pro-Hariri -- and, more broadly speaking, anti- Syrian -- camp, the concept of political freedom for Lebanon has now become inextricably linked to tracking down the culprits of the assassination and ridding national politics totally of Syrian intervention. And while things have changed dramatically over the past few months, especially following the rapid withdrawal of all Syrian forces from Lebanese soil in early summer following a 29- year-long occupation characterised by almost direct control of national politics, nonetheless there remain various unresolved elements of tension. Perhaps the most bitter thorn in the side of the opposition forces is the fact that President Emile Lahoud continues as head of state, and that, according to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt MP, "he has no intention of resigning" at this point. While pro-Syrian forces criticise as the product of external -- more precisely, Western -- intervention any attempt to delegitimise the leadership of Lahoud, according to editor-in-chief of the Lebanese daily As-Safir, Talal Suleiman, any pressure to depose the Maronite leader now continues to follow the unprecedented extension, authored directly from Damascus and seen by many as unconstitutional, of his presidency back in 2004. This extension, Suleiman wrote in the respected Beirut broadsheet, cost Lebanon "a high price", but, as events unfold, it seems that it will "cost Syria an even higher one".
