Rafic Hariri assassination trial: one suspect found guilty, three others acquitted

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The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) found guilty on Tuesday, Salim Ayyash, a suspected member of Hezbollah, in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Three other suspects were acquitted.  

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"  The Trial Chamber finds Mr. Ayyash guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as a co-perpetrator of the intentional homicide of Rafic Hariri,  " Presiding Judge David Re said when the six-year verdict was announced. of trial.

The other three suspects were acquitted. "The Trial Chamber declares Hassan Merhi, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra not guilty of all charges," said Judge David Re.

None of the four accused having been arrested, they were tried in absentia. A fifth man, considered the "brain" of the operation, was killed in Syria in 2016.

No evidence of Hezbollah or Damascus involvement

Moreover, according to the judges, "  there is no proof that the leadership of Hezbollah was involved in the murder of Rafic Hariri  ", reports our correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas. No direct evidence, either, "  of Syrian involvement  ." They thus evoke the inability of investigators and the prosecutor to identify the sponsor (s) of the attack against Rafic Hariri.

The prosecutor had made no secret of it throughout the trial, and had asked the judges to focus on the responsibility of the accused alone. The judges nevertheless specified that the attack was a political act, the context of which they recalled: Lebanon then lived under Syrian political, economic and military domination. Rafic Hariri supported UN Resolution 1559 calling for the end of the occupation and the disarmament of militias, including Hezbollah.

Verdict postponed

The judges also underline the affiliation to Hezbollah of Salim Ayache, the main defendant in the case. And also that of Mustapha Badreddine, key accused but who was killed in Syria in May 2016 and who was part of the military command of Hezbollah.

The court, based in the Netherlands, had postponed the reading of the verdict, initially scheduled for August 7, "out of  respect for the countless victims  " of the devastating double explosion that had occurred three days earlier at the port of Beirut .

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• Lebanon
• International justice