Lahoud, Seniora Clash over Legal Prison for Hariri's Suspected Assassins

An Extraordinary cabinet session has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Baabda Palace to defuse a new standoff between President Lahoud and Premier Seniora over turning the Surete General's detention ward into a legal prison for 4 detained generals accused of complicity in Rafik Hariri's assassination. An Nahar said the decision to convene the emergency cabinet session under Lahoud's chairmanship was reached after a threat by the president to abstain from signing a decree to legalize the Surete Generale's prison. Lahoud telephoned the threat to Seniora just as the cabinet began a regular session under the premier's chairmanship at the Grand Serail Monday evening, during which Haririst Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa charged that three of the four generals held at the military police prison in suburban Reihanieh were being allowed to see non-family visitors, particularly loyalist officers, An Nahar said. Justice Minister Charles Rizk, a Lahoud loyalist, rejected Sabaa's charge, saying all visits allowed to the three generals in Reihanieh were within the context of the law and had no adverse bearing on the progress of the international or domestic investigation into Hariri's murder. At this point, Seniora called Lahoud from the Grand Serail by telephone to the Baabda Palace and proposed an emergency session of the cabinet to "straighten out this abnormal situation," An Nahar said. "If President Lahoud insists on his stance against legalizing the Surete Generale prison, Seniora is bent on calling a cabinet vote to resolve the standoff," said An Nahar. If this happens, it would be the first time that a cabinet vote is called to settle a dispute between the president and the prime minister, who is backed by an overwhelming majority of Parliament. To stop the prison decree, Lahoud has to have one third of the 24-member cabinet voting 'no.'