Supporters of newly released prisoner Ali Hajj (C), former police chief, carry him during a welcome ceremony to mark his release, in Beirut April 29, 2009. REUTERS

BEIRUT — Lebanese officials have released four generals held without charge since 2005 over the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former prime minister.
Their release from Roumieh prison came hours after a UN tribunal for Lebanon ordered their release Wednesday, after ruling that there was insufficient evidence to hold them.

“The pre-trial judge orders… the release with immediate effect,” Judge Daniel Fransen said in a decision broadcast live to Lebanese television and via an internet webcast.

The special tribunal for Lebanon, which began work on March 1, is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in Beirut as soon as Fransen announced his decision.

Supporters of the freed generals fired rifles into the air in their home towns, gave away sweets and slaughtered sheep Wednesday.

The UN ruling came two days after Daniel Bellemare, the special prosecutor in charge of the case, recommended that Mustafa Hamdan, the former head of the presidential guard, Jamil al-Sayyed, the security services director, Ali al-Hajj, the domestic security chief, and Raymond Azar, the former military intelligence chief, be freed “with immediate affect.”

The four men were suspected of being behind the blast which killed al-Hariri.

Al-Hariri was killed along with 22 others in a bomb blast on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.

“Some Lebanese are not relieved by this decision,” said Saad Hariri, the son and political heir of the former prime minister and leader of Lebanon’s parliamentary majority March 14 Alliance, grim-faced during a news conference after the decision.

But he said the UN decision showed the tribunal had no political agenda.

“What has happened is a clear declaration that the international tribunal has started work and it will reveal the truth,” Hariri said.

Hizbullah released a statement welcoming the ruling.

“Hizbullah welcomes the release of the four generals and congratulates their families after a long arbitrary detention in prison cells without any evidence,” the lead opposion group said in the statement.

It accused its political foes of “flouting all laws and established procedures,” and politicizing Lebanese jurisdiction.

“The priority should now be to hold accountable and prosecute all those responsible for years of deception and procrastination,” the statement read.

“The detention of the four generals is a major scandal in the history of the country.”