Belongs to "Hezbollah"

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: 5 sentences of "life imprisonment" for those convicted of killing Rafik Hariri

Chief Justice David Rhee (right) and Judge Janet Nossworthy (left) during a photo shoot before the court session.

Father

Yesterday, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon sentenced Salim Ayyash, who belongs to Hezbollah, to life imprisonment for five crimes, and was convicted of participating in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

"The crimes are so serious that they require the highest punishment," said Judge David Re, of the court in the Netherlands.

He added that "the violations are of a great degree of seriousness, to the extent that circumstances that can be considered mitigating and allow for a reduction of the penalty, are rare."

"The Trial Chamber believes that the maximum penalty for the five crimes, which is life imprisonment, should be imposed simultaneously," he stressed.

Ayyash (57 years) was tried in absentia and convicted last August for his role in the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others.

Salim Ayyash remains at large, as Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah refused to hand him over, along with three other accused, who were eventually acquitted.

During a hearing in November, prosecutors said that life imprisonment was "the only fair and appropriate sentence" for Salim Ayyash, considering that the matter relates to "the most dangerous terrorist attack that took place on Lebanese soil."

They also demanded the confiscation of Ayyash's property.

Rafik Hariri was Prime Minister of Lebanon before his resignation in October 2004. He was killed in February 2005 by detonating a truck filled with explosives as his armored motorcade passed by.

The attack left 22 people dead and 226 injured.

On August 18, at the conclusion of a six-year trial, judges deemed there was sufficient evidence to determine that Ayyash was at the center of a network of mobile phone users who had spied on Hariri in the months before his assassination.

And they said, in their verdict, that Ayyash “is guilty in a manner not tainted by any reasonable suspicion,” of the five charges brought against him, which are: “Conducting a conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act using an explosive device, and deliberately killing Hariri using explosive materials, killing 21 Other people deliberately using explosive materials, and attempting to deliberately kill 226 people using explosive materials.

On the other hand, the court acquitted the remaining three defendants: Asaad Sabra, Hussein Oneisi, and Hassan Habib Merhi, who belonged to Hezbollah, and were tried in absentia, because the Lebanese authorities were unable to arrest them and hand them over to the court, and because of the party’s refusal to hand any of its members to a court it considers "Politicized", and he refuses to acknowledge it.

The court said, in its statement at the time, that “the first instance chamber will now impose a penalty in relation to each charge of which Ayyash was convicted, or impose a single penalty that includes his entire criminal behavior.

A convicted person can be sentenced to life imprisonment. ”

According to the judges, there is no evidence of a link between the attack and the leadership of Hezbollah or its allies in Damascus.

Experts said this ruling is important even if it was issued in absentia.

"Trials in absentia are not the best way to achieve justice," Christoph Bolosan, a researcher at the Aser Institute in The Hague, told AFP.

He said that international courts are like "a giant without arms or legs", because they rely on states to arrest suspects and are not in a position to implement any decision on their own.

He added, "But despite this obstacle, the Special Court for Lebanon has succeeded at least in forming a convincing legal file about what happened 15 years ago, which helped Lebanese society to move from a culture of impunity to a culture of accountability."

In 2007, the UN Security Council approved the establishment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in Leidschendamm, the Netherlands, and presented it as the first international court in the world aimed at investigating terrorist crimes.

Salim Ayyash will be at the center of another trial at the same court, related to three other bloody attacks against Lebanese politicians, in 2004 and 2005.

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