Lebanon: two Hezbollah members sentenced to life for the murder of Rafic Hariri

Two alleged members of Hezbollah were sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday June 16 in The Hague for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. © JOSEPH EID/AFP

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The United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), based in the Netherlands, sentenced two alleged Hezbollah members to life imprisonment on Thursday for their involvement in the attack that claimed the life of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

Acquitted in August 2020 by the Trial Chamber for insufficient evidence,

were sentenced to the most severe sentence provided for by the statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the STL.

Reacting on Twitter to the verdict, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of Rafic Hariri, wrote that Hezbollah "

".

This is wishful thinking, because for Hezbollah, the STL is an instrument of American and Israeli policy, therefore it has no intention of handing over the two men.

The end of STL

Two years ago, the STL had already

, a Hezbollah member and suspected mastermind of the February 2005 van bomb attack. He is still on the run.

Moreover, the Lebanese authorities have neither the will nor the means to enforce the verdicts of the STL.

This new judgment could be the last act of this controversial tribunal whose creation had caused strong divisions in Lebanon.

The bankrupt country can no longer afford to pay its share of funding for the international tribunal, which amounts to 49% of the budget.

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• Lebanon

• Saad Hariri

• Hezbollah