Suspected Hezbollah member sentenced to life in Rafic Hariri bombing
The judges of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), during the reading of the sentence against Salim Ayyash, on December 11, 2020, in Leidschendam, near The Hague.
© Peter Dejong, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon pronounced on Friday (December 11th) the life sentence against the only person convicted for the attack of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafic Hariri.
Salim Ayyash was found guilty in early August, as an accomplice.
The three other defendants, small hands of the attack of February 14, 2005, had been acquitted.
Like them, Salim Ayyash has never been delivered to this Tribunal created under the aegis of the UN: he was tried in absentia.
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With our correspondent in The Hague,
Stéphanie Maupas
Five times life imprisonment
for Salim Ayyash
: life imprisonment for the intentional homicide of Rafic Hariri, for that against the 21 other people killed in the attack, for the 226 wounded, then life imprisonment also for the two counts of terrorism .
Salilm Ayyash had a "
determining
"
role
in the attack,
the judges
recalled
.
He was in charge of operations.
But he is not for all that the central architect.
The crime was wanted, thought out and planned elsewhere.
The prosecutor had not provided direct evidence of the Syrian regime's involvement, the judges recalled, but the context was converging on Damascus.
This while Rafic Hariri was taking more and more freedom with the regime, installed in Lebanon since the war.
And then, added the magistrates, Salim Ayyash is a sympathizer of
Hezbollah ... an allied party of Syria
.
The judges did not seize the property of the convicted person, or order reparations as claimed by the victims: the texts of this special court do not allow it.
They nevertheless recommended that the Lebanese authorities set up a national system of compensation for victims.
The judges also hinted at the UN to allow the court to launch a voluntary fund for the victims of the attack.
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To read also
: Assassination of Rafic Hariri: why so many divisions on the Special Tribunal in Lebanon?
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