Judge Orders Bail For 3 Held Over Hariri Klling

He has yet to name suspects in the assassination, which anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have accused Damascus of orchestrating.

A Lebanese judge on Wednesday ordered the release on bail of three men held in connection with the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, judicial sources said.

Investigative Judge Sakr Sakr set minimal bail for the release of Mahmoud Abdel Aal, Ahmed Abdel Aal and Ibrahim Jarjoura, a Syrian, four days before a U.N. tribunal into the assassination was due to start work in The Hague.

The charges against them were not dropped and they could still be summoned by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which starts work on Sunday. But their release now meant they would not be moved to The Hague with other detainees.

Sakr rejected bail requests for Major General Ali Hajj and General Jamil al-Sayyed, two of four security chiefs still detained over the assassination. The four were seen as crucial members of a pro-Syria establishment that controlled Lebanon at the time of the killing.

The registrar of the tribunal said on Tuesday he expected the prosecutor to ask for detainees to be transferred to The Hague. Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has 60 days from taking office to request the transfer of people and evidence.

He has yet to name suspects in the assassination, which anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians have accused Damascus of orchestrating.

Syria has always denied any involvement in the killing, which was followed by a string of further assassinations targeting figures opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon.

Jarjoura had been charged with giving a false statement, while the other two had been accused of direct involvement in the Feb. 14, 2005 killing that triggered international pressure on Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon.

The judge set a bail of $330 each for Mahmoud Abdel Aal and Ahmed Abdel Aal, brothers who were detained in October, 2005. Bail was set at $66 for Jarjoura, who was detained in January, 2006.