SHOTLIST

Beirut - 28 February 2009

1. Wide pan of Beirut cityscape

2. Ein El Mraiseh street, site of explosion that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

3. Mid of Rafik Hariri statue

4. Mid of damage to building

5. Memorial flame where Hariri was assassinated

6. Set up of Member of Parliament Aatef Majdalani in his office

7. Close of photograph featuring Majdalani and Hariri

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Aatef Majdalani, Lebanese legislator from the Future Movement bloc:

" The start of the international tribunal is the beginning of the saving of Lebanon and the start of the international tribunal is the beginning of the end of the political assassination."

9. Cutaway Hariri pin on Majdalani's lapel

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Aatef Majdalani, Lebanese legislator from the Future Movement bloc:

" When the slain Prime Minister President Rafik Hariri was assassinated, the Syrian regime was in Lebanon and Lebanon was under the Syrian hegemony. The entire security was under their hands and that is why the international investigation committee pointed its accusation against the regime. I think that the tribunal should be able to try any suspect or criminal."

11. Tilt down exterior of Al-Amin mosque in central Beirut

12. Sign indicating "1475" days since Hariri's assassination

13. Various of Hariri's grave

14. Wide of Lebanese justice minister, Ibrahim Najjar, in his office

15. Cutaway close-up of Lebanese flag

16. SOUNDBITE (English): Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanese Justice Minister:

" The tribunal will be really independent and I think that, at least as far as Lebanese politicians are concerned, we have no intention whatsoever to interfere with the tribunal and its independence. This is really the way we see the tribunal functioning - with independence and capacity and only in order to find out the truth and to give their verdict."

17. Cutaway camera lens

18. SOUNDBITE (English): Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanese Justice Minister:

" Lebanon has really shocked with too many assassinations. I would say since more than 30 even 40 years. And it is about time now to terminate all that processes. We have to know who did what and this will be very benefit for us."

FILE: Beirut - 14 March 2005

19. Pan across protest crowd, protesters holding Lebanese flags

20. Mid of posters featuring Lebanese security chiefs being held up

Beirut - 28 February 2009

21. Set up of Samar Al-Hajj, wife of detained Brigadier General Ali Hajj

22. Portrait of Brigadier General Ali Hajj

23. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Samar Al-Hajj, Wife of detained Brigadier General Ali Hajj:

" We have been detained illegally for three and a half years. There is no existence for any law that can justify the detention of freedom. The detention is justified by a non-existent authority, in an illegal prison which does not exist on the prisons' map in Lebanon and does not relate to the chief of police as other prisons. If we want to speak legally we should not go to The Hague, otherwise they can take them (the four pro-Syria generals) in an arbitrary way, exceeding all the protocols and keep them there until the end of the parliamentarian elections."

FILE: Beirut - 15 February 2005

24. Various of aftermath of explosion which killed Hariri, firefighters tackling blazing vehicle wreckage

STORYLINE

Investigators have pored over evidence for four years - a human tooth found at the bombing site, a suicide truck that was stolen in Japan and made its way to Lebanon, reams of phone records and hundreds of interviews.

Now the focus in one of the Mideast's most dramatic political assassinations is shifting to prosecution, with the convening on Sunday of an international tribunal on the slaying of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Despite the start of proceedings in the Netherlands, it is still not known who will be accused in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people on a seaside street in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Also unknown is the most politically explosive question - whether the proceedings will implicate Syria's government, which many Lebanese believe was behind the murder of a man who led opposition to the long Syrian military occupation of Lebanon.

Syria has denied any involvement.

The tribunal was welcomed on Saturday by Lebanese lawmaker Aatef Majdalani, of the Future Movement bloc, who said it would be the saving of Lebanon.

Majdalani said that Syria would be in the spotlight as Lebanon was under the Syrian regime at the time of the assassination.

The United Nations Security Council had to impose the mixed Lebanese-international Special Tribunal after Lebanon's parliament was too divided to approve it.

But Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar insisted that the tribunal would be truly independent.

Most likely the first defendants before the court will be four pro-Syria generals who led Lebanon's police, intelligence service and an elite army unit at the time of the assassination.

They are the only people in custody, though they have not been formally charged.

The wife of one of the four officers detained, Brigadier General Ali Hajj, on Saturday called their detention "illegal".

Some in Lebanon doubt the court will ever bring out the full truth, believing it might avoid digging deep to ensure Syria does not react by stirring up trouble in Lebanon and other parts of the region.

Trials could also further polarise Lebanon's politics, feeding the power struggle between pro- and anti-Syria factions.

Administrators have said the tribunal will take up to five years to finish its work, and the top UN prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare of Canada, said in a statement on Saturday that it will be thorough.

As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence.

In a country known for political assassinations, his killing stands out for its far-reaching impact and set off huge anti-Syrian street protests in Lebanon and intense international pressure which forced Damascus to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon a few months later, ending nearly three decades of military domination.

But his death also threw Lebanon into turmoil.

Anti-Syria factions supported by the West won control of the government but were unable to exert any authority while locked in a struggle with Syria's allies, led by the Hezbollah movement.

The first UN investigator into the killing, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, said the assassination plot's complexity suggested a role by the Syrian intelligence services and its pro-Syria Lebanese counterpart.

But the two chief investigators who followed Mehlis have worked quietly and have not named any individuals or countries as suspects.

Last April (2008), Bellemare said investigators had evidence Hariri's killing was done by a "criminal network" also linked to a series of bombings and shootings that have killed seven anti-Syria figures and caused other deaths since Hariri's assassination.

The UN team worked under tight security for fear of attacks or intimidation, living in fortified compounds in Beirut and travelling in heavily protected motorcades.

The team also kept tight control of information about the investigation.

One piece of evidence is the tooth of the suicide bomber.

Forensic examinations determined the truck's driver was a man in his 20s who was not from Lebanon, according to Bellemare's predecessor as top investigator, Serge Brammertz of Belgium.

Investigators interviewed hundreds of people, including the presidents of Lebanon and Syria.

They acquired records listing more than 5 billion telephone calls and mobile phone text messages.

They determined the truck used in the bombing was stolen in Kanagawa, Japan, in October 2004 and purchased two months later near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

The probe has also seen numerous twists.

Husam Husam, a Syrian barber and self-proclaimed intelligence operative, at first implicated Syrian officials in testimony to investigators.

Then he left Lebanon for Syria and appeared on TV, recanting and saying the Hariri family paid him to frame Syria.

Lebanon's government dismissed the claim.

Another purported Syrian intelligence officer, Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq, was at first said to be a key witness, then a suspect - then he vanished while under house arrest in France.

A Lebanese man who was questioned about the sale of cell phone chips allegedly used for communicating in the bombing was found dead in what was ruled a car accident.

Syria's interior minister, Brigadier General Ghazi Kenaan, died in his Damascus office in late 2005 about a month after speaking with investigators.

Syrian officials said he shot himself to death, but some in Lebanon believe he was killed.

Kenaan ran Lebanon for two decades until 2003.

SHOTLIST

1. Pan of Roumieh prison

2. Mid of police checkpoint outside prison

3. Various of convoys leaving prison

4. Arrival of General Ali al-Hajj's convoy at his residence, pan of cheering crowd

5. Al-Hajj's wife, Samar, standing through vehicle skylight and cheering with supporters

6. Various of Al-Hajj being hoisted onto the shoulders of supporters

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Ali al-Hajj, Released General:

"I came back to those who love me."

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Son of the slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the head of Parliamentarian majority:

"I am announcing, clearly and directly, that I welcome any decision issued by the International Tribunal. Whether related to the fate if these four generals or on any related issue concerning the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri or any of the other assassinations that targeted the Lebanese leadership."

9. Various of General Jamil al-Sayyed arriving at his residence

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jamil al-Sayyed, Released General:

"Saad Hariri needs to find out who killed his father and in order to find out, he must hold people accountable. Before all else, he should hold his media sources accountable and the the politicians who lied on him. Also (prosecutor) Said Mirzah and the judges who conducted these interrogations as well as the officers who fabricated information: Zuhair Al-Sidiq, Husam Husam (alleged witnesses) and others."

11. Mid of photographers

STORYLINE

Lebanon released four generals held for nearly four years in the 2005 truck-bomb assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri after a United Nations-backed tribunal ordered them freed on Wednesday.

One of the officers was cheered by a crowd of hundreds outside his house and another was hoisted onto the shoulders of family and friends and showered by rose petals as supporters danced and blew whistles.

Their release from a Beirut prison left the international tribunal in the Netherlands with no suspects in custody after a four-year UN investigation into an assassination that triggered enormous political turmoil in Lebanon.

The tribunal's decision - after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to justify their continued detention - could also have an immediate political impact as Lebanon is heading into a crucial parliamentary election on June 7.

The generals had been held since August 2005 for suspected involvement in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February of that year.

Former General Security chief Major General Jamil al-Sayyed, the first of the generals to appear in public after their release, spoke to hundreds of cheering supporters outside his house.

He lashed out at authorities for what he called their "political detention," but said he does not seek revenge.

Al-Sayyed was released along with General Ali al-Hajj, the ex-Internal Security Forces director general; Brigadier General Raymond Azar, the former military intelligence chief; and the former Presidential Guards commander, Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan.

Tribunal judge Daniel Fransen demanded that Lebanese authorities protect the generals after he ordered their unconditional release and said they should no longer be considered suspects.

Fransen said a key witness had retracted a statement that initially incriminated the generals, undermining the case against them.

Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said in court he would not appeal. He said in a written submission this week that the evidence available to him currently "is not sufficiently credible" to keep detaining the four generals.

So far, Bellemare has not indicted anyone and has not identified any other suspects in the suicide bombing.

Hariri's son, Saad - who is head of Parliamentarian majority - said in a televised address that he accepted the tribunal's decision.

His father's assassination sparked mass protests that forced Syria's army out of the country after about three decades of political and military domination by Lebanon's neighbour.

As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence in the last months before his assassination.

Many blamed Syria for his killing - an accusation that Syria denies.