Sayyed: Legal Description of False Witnesses Crime Places it under Legal Council's Jurisdiction

Major General Jamil al-Sayyed criticized on Monday Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar's report on the false witnesses file, saying that a number of major facts have been omitted.

He said in a statement that the justice minister affirmed that a number of false witnesses, Mohammed Zuhair al-Siddiq and Husam Husam in particular, were not summoned before the Lebanese judiciary, but only the international investigation took their testimony.

Sayyed therefore asked: "How does the minister justify Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza and judges Saqr Saqr and Elias Eid's issuing of arrest warrants against the four generals without listening to the testimonies of those witnesses?"

The statement also denied that Najjar had implied that the Lebanese judiciary had taken legal action against a number of false witnesses.

It instead said that Siddiq was never summoned as a false witness, but the international investigation demanded that the Lebanese judiciary arrest him.

He was released even after investigations with him during which he confessed to being involved in the crime, Sayyed's statement continued.

An arrest warrant was issued against him only after he reached refuge and protection in France, it said.

The statement also questioned why Mirza did not investigate with false witnesses Husam Husam, Akram Shakib Murad, Ibrahim Jarjoura, and Ahmed Merhi, as he did with the 13 extremists linked with Ahmed Abu Adas.

It also criticized how Husam was placed under the protection of the Intelligence Bureau at the Internal Security Forces without any legal action being taken against him.

Moreover, the statement noted that Jarjoura was prevented from returning to Syria and forced to stay in Lebanon out of fears he would reveal information to those who drove him to make a false testimony.

"The justice minister is aware that Jarjoura is still free in Lebanon, but he is forbidden from returning to Lebanon under an unjust personal decision by Mirza illegally prohibiting him from returning to his country," it added.