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- Three other Hezbollah members cleared for their roles in the bomb that also killed 21 others
- Saad Hariri accepts tribunal verdict, demands justice
BEIRUT: A UN-backed court found one Hezbollah member guilty on Tuesday of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, but acquitted three others of involvement in a truck-bomb attack that also claimed the lives of 21 other people.
From left to right: Assad Hassan Sabra, Hussein Hassan Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi were all aquitted. (STL)
The verdicts from the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands were delivered more than 15 years after Hariri was killed and 13 years after the court began its investigations.
The tribunal ruled that Salim Jamil Ayyash, 56, was 鈥渢he main criminal in the Hariri assassination and a co-conspirator in a plot to commit a terrorist act.鈥� The court said Ayyash 鈥渉ad organizational links with Hezbollah鈥� and that Hezbollah and Syria had 鈥渂enefited from the assassination.鈥�
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Three other accused 鈥� Assad Hassan Sabra, 43, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, 46, and Hassan Habib Merhi, 54 鈥� were acquitted of any involvement in the crime because of 鈥渋nsufficient evidence.鈥�
However, the tribunal ruled that Hariri鈥檚 killing was politically motivated and an 鈥渁ct of terrorism designed to cause fear in the Lebanese population.鈥�
Rafic Hariri had helped rebuild Lebanon after years of war. (Reuters/File)
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the murdered man鈥檚 son, said his family accepted the tribunal鈥檚 verdict. 鈥淭he time for political crimes that go unpunished is over. We will not rest until the punishment is implemented,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e will not relinquish our rights. The Lebanese want truth and justice.鈥�
Special Tribunal Judge David Re, assisted by other judges, presented a summary of more than 3,000 papers detailing the court鈥檚 ruling. The verdict was broadcast on all channels in Lebanon, except Hezbollah鈥檚 outlet.
鈥淭he assassination of Hariri was a terrorist act, carried out with the intention of creating a state of panic. Its desired goal was to destabilize Lebanon in general and kill a large number of people,鈥� the court said.
鈥淓vidence indicates that the assassination of Hariri had political links, but it does not prove who ordered his assassination. This assassination was a political act directed by those who viewed Hariri as a threat to their activities.鈥�
Saad Hariri arrives to address the media after the Lebanon tribunal in Leidschendam, Netherlands, delivered a verdict against those accused of killing his father. (AP)
The court found that 鈥淗ezbollah and Syria have benefited from the assassination of Hariri, but there is no evidence that the leaders of the party and Syria were responsible for the assassination.鈥� Ayyash, who was tried in his absence, will be sentenced on Friday.
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黑料社区 鈥渧iews the ruling as the emergence of truth and the beginning of a process of achieving justice by chasing, arresting and punishing those involved,鈥� the Foreign Ministry said.
鈥淚n calling for Hezbollah and its terrorist elements to face justice and be punished, 黑料社区 stresses the need to protect Lebanon, the region and the world from the terrorist practices of this group,鈥� it said.