LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands –  A Lebanese general who was jailed for nearly four years as a suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri warned Friday that an international tribunal's refusal to let him see "false witness" testimony he claims framed him is undermining the court's credibility.

Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, Lebanon's former chief of general security, accused prosecutors at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon of using "delaying tactics" to prevent him seeing his secret investigation file. He wants to use the evidence to sue the alleged false witnesses in local courts.

"The problem of false witnesses is no longer the problem of Jamil al-Sayyed alone," the former general told judge Daniel Fransen at a hearing to discuss the dispute. "The issue has become a problem for the entire Lebanese society."

The Lebanese government collapsed Wednesday amid disagreements over the Netherlands-based tribunal.

Al-Sayyed said that the issue of false testimony was a "small stone" when it first arose, but had turned into a mountain by prosecutor Daniel Bellemare's refusal to acknowledge it.

"Those who doubt the tribunal and international justice and think the tribunal is politicized are those who can see this mountain of false witnesses that Mr. Bellemare does not want to see," he said.

Prosecutor Ekkehard Withopf called the claims of foot dragging "an unfounded allegation" and asked Fransen to reject Al-Sayyed's request to see the evidence, warning he could publicize it and endanger other witnesses.

But he also offered to show the judge the documents at a closed hearing without Al-Sayyed present so that Fransen could judge whether to release them and with what — if any — restrictions.

Prosecutors argue Al-Sayyed has no right to see evidence and that revealing it to him could jeopardize the investigation into the assassination.

Al-Sayyed and three other pro-Syrian officers were freed from a Lebanese jail in April 2009 for lack of evidence.

Shiite militant group Hezbollah brought down the government of Hariri's pro-Western son, Saad, this week over his refusal to reject the tribunal's findings even before they came out.

Hezbollah denounces the tribunal as a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy. The court is widely expected to indict members of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed group soon for involvement in the massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut.

Prosecutors are expected to send indictments to a pretrial judge next week. Their contents will not be made public until the judge confirms them, a process expected to take weeks.

Many Lebanese worry that if the tribunal draws links between the assassination and Hezbollah, it could provoke bloodshed between Lebanon's Shiite and Sunni communities. Hariri, a billionaire businessman credited with rebuilding Lebanon after its 15-year civil war, was Sunni.

Al-Sayyed's lawyer, Akram Azoury, warned that if prosecutors continue their "succession of delaying tactics," Al-Sayyed's cases in Lebanon and Syria for libel and arbitrary imprisonment could run out of time under statutes of limitation.

Since the collapse of his government earlier this week, Saad Hariri has been acting as caretaker prime minister. He has held talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and discussed the crisis with leaders of regional power Turkey on Friday.