The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced today, Wednesday, the postponement of its ruling in the case of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, following the massive explosion that rocked Beirut, on Tuesday, leaving a large number of dead and wounded.
The Hague-based court said in a statement that the announcement of the verdict, which was scheduled for Friday, was postponed to August 18 "out of respect for the large number of victims" and "with the aim of respecting the national mourning declared in Lebanon for three days."
She expressed her "deep sorrow and shock at the tragic events that struck Lebanon" on Tuesday evening, showing her "solidarity with the Lebanese people in these difficult times."
About 13 years after its founding by a United Nations decree, the court pronounces its ruling in absentia against four of the five defendants it says belong to Hezbollah, in a case that changed the face of Lebanon and prompted the exit of Syrian forces from it after 30 years of security and political guardianship imposed by Damascus.
On February 14, 2005, Hariri was killed with 21 people and 226 wounded in an explosion targeting his motorcade opposite the ancient St. George Hotel in downtown Beirut.
With the exception of Mustafa Badr al-Din, a former military commander in Hezbollah who was killed in Syria in 2016, information on the other four defendants is limited to what the International Court provided. Nothing is known about their whereabouts.
The four accused, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Mar'i, Hussein Anisi and Asad Sabra, were charged with several accusations, the most prominent of which was "participating in a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, intentional killing and attempting to intentionally kill."