Mehlis Rounds up Sayyed, Hajj, Azar, Summons Hamdan
Police rounded up several former Lebanese security chiefs who served under Syria's defunct tutelage at daybreak on Tuesday for interrogation by the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination.
Prominent among those detained were Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, former head of Lebanon's General Security Department known as Surete Generale, Brig. Gen. Ali Hajj, ex-commander of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, former commander of the army's intelligence service.
Witnesses said all three officers were escorted under heavy security from their Beirut homes to the countryside headquarters of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry at the mountain resort of Monteverde southeast of the Lebanese capital.
Under Lebanese law, those held for questioning can be detained for up to four days, but the order may be extended. Afterward, the detainee is either released, freed on bail or formally arrested.
Brig. Gen. Mostafa Hamdan, commander of the army's Presidential Guard Brigade, was instructed to report 'at once' to Monteverde for interrogation and he was still there several hours later.
Hamdan is President Lahoud's closest aide de camp and is known as Lahoud's inseparable shadow. Hamdan, physically a giant of a man, has long been a fixture in official delegations Lahoud had taken with him on state visits abroad.
Hamdan shadowed the president in Pope John Paul's funeral in the Vatican last April and Lahoud is reportedly planning to take Hamdan as a member of his entourage to the U.N. General Assembly annual session in New York next month.
The CNN said former State Prosecutor and Justice Minister Adnan Addoum also was summoned 'at once' to the U.N. Monteverde command post. But Addoum personally called Beirut TV stations to assert that he was not summoned and is at his home.
Police also raided the Beirut house of former parliament member Nasser Kandil, who was Syria's noisiest propaganda drummer during its ruthless reign of Lebanon. But his wife told the raiders that her husband was in Syria. However, Kandil was reported to have returned from Damascus, crossing the Syria-Lebanon border in the afternoon heading for the Monteverde.
All seven Beirut TV networks interrupted their regular broadcasts to flash out the news of the arrests as German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who heads the U.N. commission investigating Hariri's Feb. 14 murder, was huddled in a closed-doors conference with Premier Fouad Seniora for hours at the Grand Serail.
Seniora told reporters after the meeting that the three detained former security chiefs and Mustafa Hamdan were being interrogated as suspects into Hariri's murder.
Mehlis then met with Justice Minister Charles Rizk in the presence of state Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who had earlier given Mehlis the green light to stage the house raids and supplied him with the necessary police units to carry out the operation.
Prominent among those detained were Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, former head of Lebanon's General Security Department known as Surete Generale, Brig. Gen. Ali Hajj, ex-commander of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, former commander of the army's intelligence service.
Witnesses said all three officers were escorted under heavy security from their Beirut homes to the countryside headquarters of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry at the mountain resort of Monteverde southeast of the Lebanese capital.
Under Lebanese law, those held for questioning can be detained for up to four days, but the order may be extended. Afterward, the detainee is either released, freed on bail or formally arrested.
Brig. Gen. Mostafa Hamdan, commander of the army's Presidential Guard Brigade, was instructed to report 'at once' to Monteverde for interrogation and he was still there several hours later.
Hamdan is President Lahoud's closest aide de camp and is known as Lahoud's inseparable shadow. Hamdan, physically a giant of a man, has long been a fixture in official delegations Lahoud had taken with him on state visits abroad.
Hamdan shadowed the president in Pope John Paul's funeral in the Vatican last April and Lahoud is reportedly planning to take Hamdan as a member of his entourage to the U.N. General Assembly annual session in New York next month.
The CNN said former State Prosecutor and Justice Minister Adnan Addoum also was summoned 'at once' to the U.N. Monteverde command post. But Addoum personally called Beirut TV stations to assert that he was not summoned and is at his home.
Police also raided the Beirut house of former parliament member Nasser Kandil, who was Syria's noisiest propaganda drummer during its ruthless reign of Lebanon. But his wife told the raiders that her husband was in Syria. However, Kandil was reported to have returned from Damascus, crossing the Syria-Lebanon border in the afternoon heading for the Monteverde.
All seven Beirut TV networks interrupted their regular broadcasts to flash out the news of the arrests as German Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who heads the U.N. commission investigating Hariri's Feb. 14 murder, was huddled in a closed-doors conference with Premier Fouad Seniora for hours at the Grand Serail.
Seniora told reporters after the meeting that the three detained former security chiefs and Mustafa Hamdan were being interrogated as suspects into Hariri's murder.
Mehlis then met with Justice Minister Charles Rizk in the presence of state Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who had earlier given Mehlis the green light to stage the house raids and supplied him with the necessary police units to carry out the operation.
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