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Besides Hamdan, the generals swept up in Tuesday's actions were: Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, former chief of the powerful General Security department; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, former police chief;Wine Gift Basket and Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, former head of military intelligence.
The four generals already have been questioned by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, the U.N. chief investigator who requested that the men be summoned.
Details of the investigation are secret and nothing was known about what evidence led to the detentions. All of those being interrogated were still in custody late Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. They have not been visited by lawyers.
Three other officers and Hamdan's Wine Gift Basket brother also were detained for questioning, state television reported.
Mehlis also summoned former legislator Nasser Qandil, a staunch defender of Syria's influence in Lebanon. Qandil was in Syria when police went to his Beirut house; he later returned by Wine Gift Basket car and was escorted by two police vehicles from the Lebanese border to the capital. In brief comments to reporters, he said he would cooperate with the investigation.
"I place myself at their (U.N. team's) disposal and at the disposal of anything that leads to speeding up the unveiling of the truth" in Hariri's murder, Qandil said.
Hariri was assassinated in a massive Wine Gift Basket bombing on a Beirut street Feb. 14 that also killed 20 others. The attack prompted mass anti-Syrian protests and intensified international pressure on Syria to withdraw its army, ending 29 years of control of its neighbor.
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