Former General Security head Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed is setting his sights on the post of the Marshall Islands’ representative to the Unesco, evading, therefore, any potential prosecution in the Hariri case, the French daily Le Figaro revealed.

The former Lebanese security chief is reportedly seeking to be appointed as a delegate representing the Marshall Islands before the Unesco’s Paris headquarters.

If al-Sayyed manages to win the post, he will be granted diplomatic immunity that would enable him to avoid a possible prosecution at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) which kicked off in-absentia proceedings to try the assassins of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

According to Le Figaro, the Marshall Islands, located in the northern Pacific Ocean, have notified the Unesco about al-Sayyed candidature to represent them.

"This has caused a within the Organization”, says an Arab diplomat. “Unesco does not want to see a man with a sulfurous past to be landed a post.”

Al-Sayyed’s intrusion on the Parisian diplomatic arena would be mainly embarrassing for France which has been a fierce defender of Lebanon against the Syrian tutelage which saw the former Lebanese security services director as a key orchestrator.

Sayyed was detained in connection with the murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri. Four years later, he was freed along with three other generals after the UN-backed court ordered their release on grounds there was insufficient evidence to indict them for the 2005 murder.