Life imprisonment for two people in connection with the assassination of Rafik Hariri
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon sentenced two men to life imprisonment Thursday in connection with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.
The international tribunal, based in Leidschendam, near Amsterdam, convicted the two suspects, the two Lebanese Hezbollah members, of their involvement in the terrorist attack that killed a total of 22 people at the time.
The verdict was issued in absentia against Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi, because they are fugitives.
Hariri was assassinated in a suicide bombing in February 2005.
Another 21 people were killed and 226 were injured in the attack, and witnesses likened the force of the explosion to the earthquake.
The attack sparked international outrage and terror in Lebanon.
Syria was suspected of responsibility for the attack.
Merhi and Onissi were acquitted the first time.
The Special Court overturned the ruling after appealing against it.
The judges announced the verdict on Thursday.
The court was moved to the Netherlands for security reasons.
A life sentence was issued against the Lebanese citizen, Salim Jamil Ayyash, at the end of 2020, as the mastermind of the attack.
It is highly unlikely that the three will serve their sentences. Hezbollah, to which the three perpetrators belong, refused to extradite them.
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