BEIRUT: Hezbollah officials protested Tuesday the release of four Lebanese convicted of collaboration with Israel and asked for “an explanation of the legal reasons” behind the move, during a visit to the justice minister and the state prosecutor, sources told The Daily Star.

According to the sources, a delegation from Hezbollah, comprising the party’s top security official Wafiq Safa and Baalbek-Hermel MP Nawar Sahli visited Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and discussed with them the decision of Judge Alice Shabtini, the head of the Military Appeal’s Tribunal, to release four members from the Al-Alam family who had been handed between seven- and 15-year sentences for collaborating with Israel.

One of the sources said that Hezbollah members have expressed their objection to the decision “because the case of the collaborators with Israel is of extreme sensitivity.”

“Hezbollah asked for an explanation for the legal reasons and a justification for the release of these collaborators, who have received hard sentences, even before the pronouncement of the [Military Appeals Tribunal’s] verdict,” said a source.

Shabtini’s decision came after the Alams appealed the first verdict and were being retried by the Military Appeals Tribunal.

Separately, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri told his Twitter followers Tuesday that it was not new for Hezbollah to meddle in the judiciary’s affairs when asked about the party’s reaction to the release of the Alams.

However, a judicial source told The Daily Star that Shabtini’s decision is “100 percent legal” because the Military Appeals Tribunal has the right to examine the Alams’ verdicts and legal texts and take the suitable decision.

The same source said that the decision to release the Alams indicates that “the harshest punishment that the Military Appeal Court will subject them to is a sentence which is equal to the period which they have already spent in prison, which is around three years.”

Shabtini has compared the verdict which the Alams have received with that of retired Gen. Fayez Karam, a senior official in Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, who received a two-year sentence in September on charges of collaborating with Israel.

The source said that Hezbollah’s campaign against the Alams’ release was politically motivated, asking why the party remained silent when Karam, a member of a movement which is allied to Hezbollah, received a light sentence.

Shabtini is reported to be backed for the post as head of the Higher Judicial Council by President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, while Aoun has nominated one of his supporters, Judge Tanious Mashlab, for the post.

Speaking after chairing a session for his Change and Reform bloc at his residence in Rabieh Tuesday, Aoun said he wouldn’t comment on the controversy since he has no jurisdiction to do so.

“Relevant authorities – if they are present – should objectively present the matter,” he said.

“Separately, we have proposed a rival name for Judge Shabtini for the post of the head of the Higher Judicial Council and thus, morally, we cannot say anything against her, but we leave this for relevant authorities.”