Over the past 10 days, lawyer Antoine Korkmaz -- who was appointed by Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Defense Office as lead counsel for Mustafa Badreddine, the prime suspect in ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s murder – could not be reached on the phone.

Naharnet had repeatedly telephoned Korkmaz’s office in Paris over the past week and his secretary would only say that he was unavailable. It later appeared that he had been taking part in the coordination meetings held last week by the defense counsels at the court’s headquarters in Leidschendam.

The former chief of the General Security Department, Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, described on Thursday Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat as a “sectarian dictator” who would have let the Lebanese suffer under his rule if he had controlled the country.

Jumblat “is a small sectarian dictator in Lebanon” who has terrorized his Druze and non-Druze foes, has been involved in corruption and has ordered massacres and assassinations, Sayyed said in a statement.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Appeals Chamber ruled on Friday that statements of certain witnesses must be provided by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to former General Security chief Jamil Sayyed swiftly, it said in a statement.

The decision confirms in part an earlier ruling by Pre Trial Judge Daniel Fransen ordering that the documents be disclosed, it continued.

Former General Jamil al-Sayyed refused to comment on the indictment that was published by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“This indictment only received dull comments, despite the desperate attempts by al-Mustaqbal movement media to provoke people,” he said on Thursday in a statement published by his press office.

Informed sources have denied that Syria has sent to Lebanon for the second time arrest warrants against 33 Lebanese personalities in the lawsuit filed by former head of Lebanon’s General Security Department Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed.

The sources told al-Mustaqbal daily published Tuesday that Syria only sent a detailed document on the identities of the 33 figures. They include judges, security officers, politicians, journalists and other Lebanese, Arab and foreign officials and individuals.

The second phase of the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will include the names of a number of Lebanese officials close to Syria and other Syrian individuals, revealed British security sources to the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper.

These names include the four generals, former General Security chief Jamil Sayyed, former head of the presidential guard Mustafa Hamdan, former Internal Security Forces chief Ali Hajj, and former military intelligence chief Raymond Azar.

A high-ranking source hinted on Wednesday that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would issue the indictment at a time when the Lebanese cabinet reached a positive stage by engaging in consultations to draft its policy statement.

“Every time we reach a positive stage, they brandish us with the indictment. This has happened in the past and is taking place today after the formation of the government and the start of consultations on the policy statement,” the source told As Safir.

Future News television on Monday quoted the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon as saying that “judicial procedures are not bound by timeframes and only these procedures can define what to be published and when.”

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who paid a sudden visit to the Grand Serail on Monday, denied to Future News that he had received any document from the STL. “There is no decisive information on the release date of the indictment,” Mirza told the TV network.

Judge Antonio Cassese, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has set a deadline of June 10 for STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to file a response, if any, to the appeal filed on May 23 by Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, Lebanon’s former General Security chief, against STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen’s ruling on the disclosure of more than 270 investigation documents to Sayyed, STL’s press office said Wednesday.

“The Prosecutor shall file a response, if any, to the Appeal by 10 June 2011 and the Appellant a reply thereto, if any, by 22 June 2011,” says Cassese in his scheduling order.

Akram Azouri, the defense attorney of former General Security chief Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, has sent an urgent request to Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen, asking him to define the procedures applicable to the filing of a challenge against two articles mentioned in his May 12 ruling, the Central News Agency reported Wednesday.

On May 12, Fransen ordered that STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare release more than 270 investigation documents to Sayyed.