Lebanon: Hague court finds Hezbollah member guilty in killing of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri

A United Nations-backed tribunal has convicted one member of Hezbollah and acquitted three others in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, during a long-awaited verdict session on Tuesday.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) judges said there was “no evidence” the leadership of the Lebanese militant group or the Syrian government were involved in the suicide truck bombing which killed Hariri and 21 other people and injured over 200 more. Hezbollah has long denied any involvement.

Four members of the Iran-backed Shia movement were originally charged with conspiracy to carry out the attack.

On Tuesday three STL judges said Salim Ayyash, 56, was guilty of five charges including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and intentional homicide with premeditation by using explosive materials.

However, after nearly a decade of investigation and a lengthy trial, the same tribunal acquitted the three other defendants, Hussein Oneissi, 46, Assad Sabra, 43 and Hassan Merhi, 54.

A hearing will be held at a later date to determine Ayyash’s sentence. As the UN-backed court has no death sentence, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. He is unlikely to serve any time as Hezbollah has vowed not to hand over any suspects.

Painting a rich picture of the complex political backdrop for the assassination, Judge David Re, who was presiding, admitted that the murder was “undoubtedly a political act”. He said in the months preceding the bombing, Hariri was a supporter of reducing the influence of Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The trial chamber is of the view that Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr Hariri and his political allies, however, there is no evidence that the Hezbollah leadership had any involvement in Mr Hariri’s murder and there is no direct evidence of Syrian involvement,” said Judge Re, reading a 150-page summary of the court’s decision.

The court was not expected to rule on the involvement of either Hezbollah or Syria as it can only accuse individuals, not groups or states. But the fact the tribunal appeared to explicitly and categorically rule out evidence tying Hezbollah’s leadership to the crime was good news for the Iran-backed group, which dominates Lebanese politics.

The day-long session focused primarily on a network of mobile phones used to intensely shadow Hariri’s movements and coordinate the attack.

Hariri’s son Saad Hariri, himself a former prime minister, attended the session in The Hague, alongside family members of MP and former minister Bassel Fleihan as well as bodyguard Ziad Tarraf, who were both killed in the same attack.

He said outside the court that the family accepts the verdicts. “The court has ruled,” he said. Now, he said, the family awaits the implementation of justice.

“The time when political crimes in Lebanon used to go unpunished are gone,” he added.

The verdict was delayed by nearly two weeks out of respect for the for victims of another devastating explosion – the detonation of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored poorly at Beirut’s port. The 4 August blast, considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history, killed around 180 people, injured more than 6,000 and left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in.

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Tuesday’s court session began with a minute’s silence to remember the dead and those who have been affected by the devastation.

Hariri was killed on 14 February 2005 as he got into his car after visiting the Café de l’Etoile by parliament, where he served as an MP.

As his motorcade passed along the seafront corniche in the capital, a truck bomb tore through his vehicle. It left a 2m-deep crater and ripped out the facades of the surrounding buildings, killing 21 people.

The assassination sent shockwaves through the region and the world at the time, sparking mass protests later dubbed the Cedar Revolution within Lebanon.

Following intense pressure from the UN, France and the US, it also culminated with Syria pulling its troops out of Lebanon after nearly 30 years.

Hariri supporters in the Beirut district of Tareeq al-Jadideh expressed anger and disappointment at the verdicts.

“If a police station in Tareeq al-Jadideh had investigated this crime, it would be a better result,” one man, driving away on a scooter, told a local television station.

Agencies contributed to this report