Salim Jamil Ayyash was sentenced on Friday by the International Tribunal for Lebanon to five life sentences for plotting to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in the 2015 bombing.
"The Trial Chamber considers that the maximum penalty for each of the five crimes, which is life imprisonment, should be imposed at the same time," Australian Judge David Rhee said while reading the ruling.
He added that Ayyash - whom the prosecution list describes as a military leader in the Lebanese Hezbollah - committed a terrorist act that caused mass killing, indicating that he had a vital role in the success of the bombing operation that targeted the convoy of the late former Lebanese prime minister in central Beirut on February 14. 2005.
For her part, Judge Janet Nosworthy described the crimes that Ayyash committed as extremely dangerous, explaining that he had a pivotal role in the attack.
On August 18, the court convicted Ayyash of 5 counts;
Includes participation in the killing of Hariri and 21 other people, and he was tried in absentia, and he never appeared before the Special Court for Lebanon, nor was he arrested in his country for this case.
In that session, the court said that the evidence proves Ayyash’s involvement in the assassination of Hariri intentionally and premeditatedly, while the court did not prove any evidence of the involvement of defendants, Asad Sabra and Hussein Oneissi, in the Hariri assassination.
At that time, the court also acquitted the other defendant, Hassan Mari, of the charge of coordinating the assassination, and said that the defense of the convicts had one month to respond to the verdict or request an appeal.
(Read more about the personality of Salim Ayyash and the charges brought against him by the Special Court).
A rejectionist position
On the other hand, the Lebanese Hezbollah today expressed its rejection of what it described as the absence of uniform standards in the prosecution against the caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and 3 former ministers in the case of the Beirut port explosion, which occurred on the fourth of last August.
The party said - in a statement - that the absence of unified standards in the approach of the investigating judge has led to what the party believes is political targeting of people and ignoring others.
And Hezbollah called on the judge to re-approach the file and take measures to reach the truth by unified standards far from politicization.
For his part, Diab indicated - in a statement - that he would not allow the prime minister's position to be targeted by any party.
The judicial investigator in the file of the Beirut Port bombing, Judge Fadi Sawan, had charged the caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with the crime of negligence and negligence, and causing the death and harm of hundreds of people.
Judge Sawan set the beginning of next week as a date for interrogating them as defendants.
Reuters reported that the other three ministers are former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and former Minister of Public Works Ghazi Zuaiter and Youssef Fenianos.