The International Tribunal for Lebanon issued an arrest warrant in absentia for two members of Hezbollah in the case of the assassination of Rafik Hariri. The head of the Future Movement, Saad Hariri, called on the state and its security services to work to arrest those accused of the assassination of his father.
And a court statement announced, today, Thursday, "the decision of the Appeals Chamber of the Court to convict Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, after unanimously annulled a previous ruling that acquitted them."
The President of the Appeals Chamber, Judge Ivana Hrdlichkova, confirmed that the acquittal of the accused had been unanimously rescinded, and said, "We unanimously declare" that they are "guilty."
Hours after the verdict was issued, Saad Hariri said in a statement that the Appeals Chamber's decision "compels the Lebanese state, with all its authorities and military and security forces, to work to arrest the convicts and hand them over to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implement the prescribed penalties."
In the statement, Hariri called for the arrest of Hezbollah member Salim Ayyash, blaming the party "the responsibility of covering up the crime, protecting the criminals who are affiliated with it, and evading the rule of international justice."
The court convicted Ayyash in August 2020 and sentenced him at the end of the same year in absentia to life imprisonment, and the judges at the time considered Ayyash “guilty beyond any reasonable doubt” of the five charges brought against him, which are “arranging a conspiracy aimed at committing a terrorist act, and committing a terrorist act by using An explosive device, the intentional killing of Hariri using explosive materials, the deliberate killing of 21 other people using explosive materials, and an attempt to intentionally kill 226 people using explosive materials.
However, the court - which was established in 2009 by a Security Council resolution and is located in Leidschendam near The Hague - did not find at the time sufficient evidence to convict 3 other defendants from the Tehran-backed Hezbollah, who are Assad Sabra, Anissi and Marei.
The prosecution later appealed the verdicts of acquittal against the latter.
Hezbollah has repeatedly refused to extradite the defendants or even acknowledge the court, which issued an international arrest warrant for Ayyash after his conviction.
In January 2021, Ayyash's defense team submitted a request to appeal the ruling against him, but the court rejected the request.
She declared that he could not appeal the verdict against him unless he surrendered.
The court announced in June that it was facing an "unprecedented financial crisis" that might force it to "close its doors".
It also canceled the start of Ayyash's trial in a case related to 3 attacks targeting politicians in Lebanon between 2004 and 2005 due to lack of funding.
Rafik Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005, when a huge explosion targeted his convoy in the capital, Beirut, along with 21 other people, including Economy Minister Basil Fleihan, who was accompanied by Hariri in his car.