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Jamil Al Sayyed

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Jamil Al Sayyed
Born
Jamil Al Sayyed

1950 (age 74–75)
al Nabi Eila, Lebanon
NationalityLebanese
OccupationMilitary officer
Years active1970s–present

Jamil Al Sayyed (born 1950) is the former head of Lebanon's Sureté Générale or Lebanese General Security Directorate. He was detained for four years, from 2005 to 2009, due to his alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Considering that his detention was based on false witnesses , he was released by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on April 29,2009 due to lack of evidence[1][2][3] and was never charged with a crime.[4]

Early life and education

Sayyed was born into a Shia family in the Bekaa village of al Nabi Eila, near Ablah- Bekaa Valley, in 1950.[5][6][7] He graduated from al Hikmeh (la Sagesse) school in Beirut.[6]

Career

After graduated from the Military Academy in 1971, Lt Jamil Al Sayyed ,ranked 1st of his class, was sent to France for a military course for one year at the Armored School of the French Army. Back to Lebanon in1972 he was assigned as a military instructor at the Military Academy until 1974. He served in the armored corps of the Lebanese army in North Lebanon for few months ,then was sent for a anti tank missile training course in Egypt. Back to Lebanon on April 1975 he served as Commandor of the Anti Tank Missile Company in Beirut until March 1976. Due to the civil war and his refusal to join the leftist and muslim Units after the sectarian fragmentation of the lebanese Army , he joined the First Brigade in the Bekaa valley composed of multi communitarian units under brigadier general Ibrahim Shaheen, who at that time established with christian and muslim officers the Vanguards of the Arab Lebanese Army under Syrian supervision. In 1977, Sayyed began to serve in the intelligence branch of the first brigade after it was reincorporated into the Lebanese army and became army intelligence.[6][8] Next, he was appointed chief intelligence officer in the Bekaa Valley in 1984.[5] From 1989 to 1990, he served as head of the security for former Lebanese President Elias Hrawi. Sayyed was commonly considered as the most influential security official in Lebanon after the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.[7] In 1992, he was appointed deputy chief of military intelligence.[9] During this period, Sayyed reported the activities of then army commander Emile Lahoud to the Syrian government.[10]

Six years later, in 1998, then Lebanese President Emile Lahoud appointed him as the director-general of the interior ministry's general security department.[5][11] Lebanese general security directorate acted as Syria's leading Lebanese gate-keeper during this period[12] and had a close liaison with Hezbollah, which had a sophisticated paramilitary apparatus independent of Lebanese state control.[13] Sayyed had long-standing associations with Bashar Assad and the Assad family when he was appointed head of general security.[14][15] During the Ghazi Kanaan's term as head of the Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, Sayyed reported directly to Kanaan, often bypassing the Lebanese authorities.[16] Sayyed was also close to Asef Shawkat, the then deputy chief of Syrian military intelligence, in 2000 in that Shawkat tried to give him more responsibility instead of Kanaan.[17]

Additionally, Sayyed was assigned with the task of cross-examining potential candidates for the soon-to-be-formed parliament and cabinet in 2000.[5] Sayyed was a member of the committee that was founded on 6 December 2000 to receive the Lebanese detainees from Syrian prisons and investigate their files.[18]

Resignation

Sayyed resigned from office on 25 April 2005[19] as a result of the heavy pressure from the anti-Syria opposition in Lebanon after Rafik Hariri's assassination on 14 February 2005.[7] He was one of seven pro-Syrian officials whose resignations had been requested by the Lebanese opposition after the assassination.[20] These demands were initially not taken into consideration by Lebanese regime.[13]

Controversy

Rafik Hariri assassination

See also General Jamil Al Sayyed controversy

At the time of the assassination of Rafik Hariri, four Lebanese military and intelligence officers including major general Jamil Al Sayyed, head of the Lebanese general security directorate, brigadier general Mustapha Hamdan, head of the presidential guard, major general Ali Al Hajj, director of internal security forces, and brigadier general Raymond Azar, former military intelligence chief,[4] were considered as pillars of the Lebanese state under the domination of Syria.[7] In other words, their first loyalty was allegedly to the Syrian government rather than Lebanese government.[21] They were all arrested on 30 August 2005 at the request of German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who was carrying out the UN investigation about the assassination.[7][19] Sayyed was described as one of the persons who decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri in a leaked draft version of the Mehlis report along with other Syrian high-rank intelligence and security officers and officials, namely late Assef Shawkat, Maher Assad, Hassan Khalil and Bahjat Suleyman.[22] More specifically, the Mehlis report dated October 2005 quoted a witness stating that Sayyed cooperated closely with Mustapha Hamdan and Raymond Azar in the preparation of the Hariri assassination and that Ali Al Hajj knew about the attack in advance.[7] However, later reports about the assassination did not repeat the allegations against Sayyed and other three Lebanese generals.[7] Sayyed was detained in Roumieh prison, northeast of Beirut from 2005 to April 2009.[7][1][23] He and other three generals were released from the prison upon the order of the Special Tribunal Lebanon pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen[24] due to the lack of evidence.[1][2][3] They were not charged with any crime.[4]

Another controversy Sayyed involved in was about financial, but again about Rafik Hariri. In his testimony after his arrest in 2005, he stated that Hariri gave him $10 Million check and another check with the same amount Ghazi Kanaan, and that they made money from Hariri, so they had no reason to kill him.[25]

Michel Samaha case

Sayyed is a close friend of Michel Samaha.[26][27] In September 2012, various Lebanese media outlets, including The Daily Star, argued that Sayyed had been allegedly in the car with Samaha who had been detained since August 2012 along with a third person while transferring explosives from Syria to Lebanon to carry out terrorist attacks.[28] In response to this claim, Sayyed slammed the chief of the internal security forces Ashraf Rifi and the then information branch head late Wissam al-Hassan, arguing that they had been behind the reports and were trying to implicate him in the Samaha case.[28] Sayyed further stated "Whether I was with Samaha in his car or not, I am not denying or confirming it but I don’t think Samaha’s car would fit two donkeys,"[28] 14 March MP Okab Sakr also expressed the same claims against Sayyed in December 2012.[29]

After prison

Sayyed visited Damascus and met Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2009 after his release.[30] They reportedly discussed various political issues as well as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.[30] Sayyed tried to bring cases of false witnesses in the Hariri investigation in Lebanon, but his attempts were unproductive. He filed a suit against Mehlis in France in 2009 for "manipulated investigations." Sayyed further accused German police commissioner Gerhard Lehmann, Mehlis's assistant in the Beirut investigations, of blackmail.[31] In December 2009, he filed a lawsuit in Damascus against various defendants who he alleged were involved in false testimonies intended to point to the involvement of Syria and its supporters in Hariri's assassination.[32]

After these events, Sayyed went to France for a week, and the prosecutor-general, Said Mirza, issued a summons for him to answer questions over his statements. On his return to Beirut in 2010, Sayyed was met at Beirut international airport and escorted home by armed Hezbollah supporters.[3] He stated on his return that Saad Hariri supported false witnesses who misled the investigation into Rafiq Hariri's assassination.[33] On 17 April 2010, Sayyed applied for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon requesting the material related to his four-year detention.[24] Prosecutors claimed that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to meet the Sayyed's request, since its task is limited to deal with Hariri's death.[34]

Personal life

Jamil Al Sayyed is described as smart and smooth, but one with the tendency to blink under pressure according to the military records of the Lebanese army.[6] He is a Shi'ite Muslim and has close ties to the Iran- and Syria-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah.[7] His son, Malek Sayyed, is a lawyer.[35]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Jamil as-Sayyed". Now Lebanon. 31 August 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Hariri's Damascus Trip Complicated by Syrian Warrants For Lebanese Officials". Wikileaks. 14 December 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2012. Cite error: The named reference "wiki09" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Muir, Jim (22 September 2010). "Deep divisions haunt Lebanese politics". BBC. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  4. ^ a b c "Lebanon Historical Chronology". Security Council Report. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d Lynch, Sarah (24 September 2010). "Who is Jamil as Sayyed?". YaLibnan. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  6. ^ a b c d Nassif, Daniel (March 2000). "Dossier: Jamil al-Sayyid". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 2 (3). Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Factbox: Lebanese generals ordered released by Hariri court". Reuters. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  8. ^ Élizabeth Picard (2012). Are Knudsen, Michael Kerr (ed.). Lebanon in search of sovereignty: Post 2005 security dilemmas (PDF). CMI. pp. 156–183. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  9. ^ Salloukh, Bassel (Fall 2005). "Syria and Lebanon: A Brotherhood Transformed". Middle East Reaserch and Information Project. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  10. ^ Gambill, Gary C. (November 2001). "Dossier: Emile Lahoud". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 3 (11). Retrieved 10 January 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Ghattas, Sam F. (25 April 2005). "Pro-Syrian Security Chief Resigns". Associated Press. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  12. ^ Salloukh, Bassel (Fall 2005). "Syria and Lebanon: A Brotherhood Transformed". MER236. 35. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
  13. ^ a b Harris, William (Summer 2005). "Bashar al Assad's Lebanon Gamble". Middle East Quarterly. 12 (3): 33–44. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  14. ^ Gambill, Gary C. (1 July 2000). "Lebanon after Assad". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 2 (6). Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  15. ^ Gambill, Gary C. (June 2001). "Can Syria Put the Lebanese Regime Together Again?". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 3 (6). Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  16. ^ Nassif, Daniel (January 2000). "Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 2 (1). Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  17. ^ "Intelligence Briefs: Syria". Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. 2 (10). November 2000. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  18. ^ "Report on Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons" (PDF). Lebanese Information Center. August 2003. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  19. ^ a b Mallat, Chibli. Lebanon's Cedar Revolution An essay on non-violence and justice (PDF). Mallat. p. 122.
  20. ^ Whitaker, Brian (26 April 2005). "Syrian intelligence chief abandons base as 29-year occupation of Lebanon ends". The Guardian. Beirut. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  21. ^ Fisk, Robert (11 January 2009). "Who killed Mr Lebanon?: The hunt for Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's assassins". The Independent. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  22. ^ "Mehlis Report". Washington Post. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  23. ^ "Jamil al Sayyed celebrates photos". USA Today. 29 April 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  24. ^ a b "Timeline Jamil Al Sayyed". Special Tribunal for Lebanon. 12 May 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  25. ^ "Ghazi Kanaan shoots himself dead ahead of U.N. Report on Hariri's murder". Naharnet. Beirut. 12 October 2005. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  26. ^ "What you didn't know about Lebanon's Michel Samaha". Al Arabiya. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  27. ^ Kechichian, Joseph (9 August 2012). "Lebanon's Pro-Syria cabinet minister Samaha apprehended". Gulf News. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  28. ^ a b c "Sources: Sayyed in Samaha's car during Syria-Lebanon bombs transport". The Daily Star. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2012.
  29. ^ "Sakr: Leaked recordings were fabricated". Now Lebanon. 6 December 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  30. ^ a b "Assad Meets Jamil Sayyed, Discusses International Tribunal". Naharnet. 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  31. ^ Follath, Erich (23 May 2009). "New Evidence Points to Hezbollah in Hariri Murder". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  32. ^ Muir, Jim (4 October 2010). "Rafiq Hariri inquiry: Syria issues 33 arrest warrants". BBC. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  33. ^ "Former Lebanese army general who called to topple Hariri government returns to Beirut". Albawaba. 18 September 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
  34. ^ "Lebanon tribunal says can hear Al Sayed file request". Reuters. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  35. ^ "Lebanon: Lawyers for four detained generals seek USG support". Guardiangate. 19 February 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2012.

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