The United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) sentenced in absentia Thursday, June 16 to life imprisonment two members of Hezbollah for the death in an attack in 2005 of 22 people including former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
Read alsoDefining the attack, a challenge for justice
“The Appeals Chamber unanimously decides to sentence Mr. (Habib) Merhi and Mr. (Hussein) Oneissi to life imprisonment, the heaviest sentence provided for by the statute and the rulesfrom the court, STL President Ivana Hrdlickova said. The court found Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi guilty on appeal on March 10, reversing their acquittal. They were notably convicted on appeal of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism and complicity in intentional homicide.
SEE ALSO – In Lebanon, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri gives up on forming a government
Van filled with explosives
The two men hadfully aware that the planned attack in the heart of Beirut would kill Rafic Haririand other people, raised judge Ivana Hrdlickova. They acted with premeditation and were guilty of crimes of a “extreme gravity” and “particularly odious” who have “plunged the Lebanese people into a state of terror“, she added. It is unlikely that the two men will be truly imprisoned because the Shiite Hezbollah movement has refused to hand over any suspects and to recognize the court which tried all the suspects in absentia including Salim Ayyash, already sentenced to life in 2020.
Rafic Hariri, who was Lebanon’s prime minister until his resignation in October 2004, was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber blew up a van loaded with explosives as his armored convoy passed through Beirut, killing 21 others people and causing 226 injuries. The attack sparked protests that drove Syria out of Lebanon after a 29-year military deployment. After the departure of the Syrian army, the current hostile to Damascus, led by Saad Hariri, son of Rafic Hariri, had won the legislative elections of 2005 and 2009.
Salim Ayyash sentenced in 2020
It could well be the end of the curtain for the STL, which sits near The Hague, in the Netherlands. Threatened with disappearance for lack of funding, the court should close its doors at the end of this trial. Since its opening in 2009 after a resolution of the UN Security Council, the cost of the STL, responsible for trying those accused of the attack, is estimated between 600 million and one billion dollars.
At the end of the trial at first instance, the court sentenced Salim Ayyash in 2020 but considered that there was not enough evidence to convict the other defendants, Assad Sabra, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi. The prosecution had appealed the acquittals of the last two. The file shows a significant number of exchanges with different mobile phones used by the convicts in the hours following the assassination of Mr. Hariri.
Read alsoFor Riyadh, the Lebanese Hezbollah is a regional “threat to security”
The three convicts remain at large, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah refusing to hand them over to the court, which warned it would close shortly due to a lack of funds. Another trial against Salim Ayyash for a series of attacks on several politicians has been canceled due to lack of funds.
SEE ALSO – Lebanon: demonstrators protest against the appointment of Saad Hariri as prime minister