Lebanese authorities must justify the continued detention of suspects held in connection with the bomb blast that killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, says a judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).

The continued detention in Lebanon suspects of the bomb blast that killed the country's former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri must be substantiated before the end of the month, a judge of the United Nations-backed tribunal set up to try the case has said.

On Thursday, Daniel Fransen, the Pre-Trial Judge for the United Nations-backed Tribunal ordered the prosecutor to file reasoned submissions by 27 April 2009, stating whether or not he requests the continued detention of four Lebanese generals.

Judge Fransen stressed that that it is a fundamental right, enshrined in all human rights law, that any individual arrested or detained be brought promptly before a judge to rule on his or her detention status.

He noted, however, that the Hariri case raised difficult issues of terrorism, and that the judicial record relating to it was particularly complex and voluminous.

The Tribunal in Leidschenmdam, near The Hague, is designed to try those accused of recent political murders in Lebanon, in particular the February 2005 assassination of Mr. Hariri and 22 others in downtown Beirut.

The STL took over from the Beirut-based International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) in the beginning of March 2009.

The investigation of the murders continues under the guidance of Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, who also headed the probe while the case rested with the IIIC. The trial will start once he has gathered sufficient evidence to bring a case.