Al-Sayyed Goes to The Hague with a Mission, Politicians Convince Angry Relatives Not to Confront him
The Hague - Naharnet Exclusive
The arrival of former General Security chief Jamil al-Sayyed at the seat of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague to attend the trial in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination caused a stir among the relatives of the victims in the series of bombings that targeted Lebanese figures since the assassination attempt against MP Marwan Hamadeh in October 2004.
The journalists that are pro-March 8 considered al-Sayyed's presence in The Hague newsworthy, giving a political presence to the alliance with respect to the huge existence of March 14 figures, who were accompanied by a large number of journalists aboard former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's private jet.
The reporters are residing in luxury hotels and Hariri has put at their disposal transportation vehicles to take them back and fourth between their bases and the STL's headquarters.
The relatives and families of the victims of the series of murders and assassination attempts expressed their anger at al-Sayyed, calling for confronting him at the court's entrance to prevent him from entering the building.
Some of the angry relatives mulled to ask STL judges not to grant al-Sayyed the permission to attend the start of the trial for being a provocative person.
March 14 officials, in their turn, urged the families to exercise self-restraint and worked on preventing any move that would turn attention away from the indictment against four Hizbullah members, which the prosecution will discuss at the start of the trial.
Any wrong move in the reaction to al-Sayyed's provocative presence would help him achieve his objective, the March 14 officials warned.
They said the former general security chief is seeking to hinder the process of the trial by luring the families of the victims to confront him outside the STL building or inside its halls to delay the trial.
The officials also believe that al-Sayyed had a double mission to work in favor of Hizbullah and the security and intelligence agencies of Syrian President Bashar Assad to follow-up the trial closely and study the steps that the party and the Syrian regime should take in following up the mission of the STL.
They also accused al-Sayyed of seeking to interfere in the trial to bring up the case of his arrest along with three other pro-Syrian generals during the initial phase of the investigation into Hariri's murder.
Such an interference is aimed at drowning the judges in the details of his arrest to prevent them from moving forward with their attempts to reveal more evidence and information in Hariri's assassination and several other attacks linked to it.
One of the Lebanese politicians who is in The Hague to attend the start of the trial told the relatives of the victims, who complained about al-Sayyed's “provocative presence,” that they should get used to seeing him there.
“If his presence is annoying you, then his future presence will heal your wounds,” he said.
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