The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on Tuesday found Salim Ayyash, a suspected member of Hezbollah, in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri after a six-year trial.
"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.
The STL, however, acquitted the other three suspects in this case.
Tried in absentia
None of the accused having been handed over to court, they were tried in absentia. Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime and Iran, has rejected any responsibility and declared that it does not recognize the STL, set up following a resolution of the UN Security Council.
Rafik Hariri, Prime Minister until his resignation in October 2004, was killed in February 2005, when a suicide bomber blew up a van filled with explosives as his armored convoy passed by on the Beirut seafront, leaving 21 other dead and 226 injured.
His death, in which four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals were initially accused of being involved, sparked a wave of protests at the time, leading to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after nearly 30 years of presence in Lebanon.
Protected witnesses: Lebanese TV acquitted by the Hariri tribunal Hariri tribunal: the editor of a Lebanese newspaper guilty of contempt- Hezbollah
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