5 Hezbollah Members Sentenced to Life in Hariri Assassination

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon sentenced, Friday, 5 members of the Hezbollah militants to life for assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

The defendant Salim Ayyash, one of the members in Hezbollah Militia, was convicted of murder and committing a terrorist act regarding  the killing of Hariri and 21 others.  He has not been in court at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for Friday’s sentencing hearing.

Having read a summary of the 2,600-page verdict, Judge David Re mentioned that Ayyash was convicted of being a co-perpetrator in five charges linked to the suicide truck bombing on Beirut’s seafront on Feb. 14, 2005. The blast killed Hariri and 21 others, in addition to 226 injured.

“Mr. Ayyash participated in an act of terrorism that caused mass murder. His role was vital to the success of the attack,” Re said.

“The trial chamber is satisfied that it should impose the maximum sentence for each of the five crimes of life imprisonment, to be served concurrently,” Re added.

He also strongly believed that Hezbollah has been hiding Ayyash from justice, referring to speeches by its leader warning against any moves to arrest any of the suspects.

“In my view, a strong inference is available from the above as to who has been shielding him from justice for all of these years,” he said.

He also affirmed that he made a declaration in the written sentencing judgment on “some issues of judicial integrity” at the tribunal, including what he called attempts by judges to interfere with witness testimony during the trial and “financial impropriety.”

“I’m calling on the Secretary General of the United Nations to intervene to restore judicial probity and integrity at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” the judge requested.

One of the trial judges Janet Nosworthy claimed the assassination “most probably had to have involved a state actor” and that the state “with most to gain from Mr. Hariri’s elimination most likely was Syria.”